ONTARIO MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT NEED TO BE PUBLICLY OUTED

I'm sure that the MOECC could only improve if their budget was doubled tomorrow. They could hire the best environmental lawyers and go after the big boys with a vengeance. They could afford to prosecute and then go through the appeal system as required. The problem is at the top. Ministers and Deputy Ministers exist to do the bidding of their political masters. Historically we have seen here in Ontario, and likely in most other jurisdictions as well, a strong pro business, pro corporation, pro status quo bias that powerful corporations need to be kept on side. Whether political donations or simply the overall clout of the unholy dollar or for whatever other reasons our governments do not lightly alienate big corporations by demanding that they follow the laws of the land, even environmental laws.

The MOECC have utterly and completely failed citizens in Elmira, Kitchener, Breslau and Cambridge not to mention the Grassy Narrows area. While Ciba-Geigy (Novartis) and Canadian General Tower were bad with drinking water wells affected; the Northstar and GE (Rozell) groundwater and vapour intrusion issues are the worst. To this day homes and health are still affected and apparently "only" eleven homes have indoor air levels at 5 ppm.. That is eleven too many and the statement in the Record that getting TCE fumes down to .5 ppm. is somehow perfect or acceptable is ridiculous. The normal level of TCE that anyone is breathing should be zero. TCE is not like fluoride whereby allegedly a tiny amount is helpful (teeth). TCE is toxic and even tiny amounts over a long time can cause disease.

The Ontario Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MOECC) should have prevented and or stopped the decades long discharge of 1,1,1, Trichloroethane, Chromium and Trichloroethylene (TCE). "Discovering" it long after the fact is not satisfactory. People had been sick and dying for a very long time and employees and even nearby businesses and homes had to see and smell something going on. The volumes of chemical waste discharge could not be dismissed as trivial. The M.O.E.C.C. are supposed to have a manifest system telling them how much chemicals come in and then where they are disposed of. Wilful blindness occurred in Elmira at multiple businesses by M.O.E. personnel over decades. It's hard not to believe that the very same wilful blindness occurred in Cambridge.

Only transparency and public accountabilty will ever change the MOECC. If it requires a class action suit so be it. A class action suit with the proviso that the public must see and learn what our governments' blind eye environmental policies have resulted in; namely death and disease of citizens.