Falling short yet again

If the Ontario government wishes to understand why so many citizens regard it with a skeptical eye, Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk is here to help.

In her report this week on the province’s compliance, or lack of same, with the Environmental Bill of Rights Act, Lysyk shredded the government for failing to consult voters as required on significant environmental decision-making.

On the face of it, it seemed as if the government of Premier Doug Ford simply doesn’t take seriously the rights of citizens to participate in the process.

But it got worse. For there was another matter Lysyk’s report said the government seemed not to be taking seriously.

That would be the emission targets to which it has committed in order to tackle climate change.

In her 2019 audit, Lysyk found that Environment Ministry projections saw Ontario reaching only 10.9 megatonnes of emission reductions by 2030, as opposed to the 17.9 megatonnes shown in its environment planning.

In her latest report, she said the ministry had updated its assumptions and, as of October this year, estimated its current policies could reduce emissions by only 3.4 megatonnes by 2030 – or only about 19 per cent of the target.

“The Environment Ministry does not have an expected timeframe for presenting an updated climate-change plan to cabinet for approval,” Lysyk’s report dryly noted.

Which, translated from the original bureaucratese, more or less means: “Can you believe these guys!?”

It’s a breathtaking shortfall, and difficult to reconcile with the urgency of the United Nations report this summer portraying the climate crisis as dire.

Lysyk had recommended in 2019 that the province update its climate-change plan to “include detailed actions, with all estimated emissions reductions based on sound evidence and supported by a comprehensive and transparent feasibility and cost analysis.”

Her conclusion in this year’s update about how the province had done on that assignment?

“Little or no progress.”

As it happens, she used an interesting word in that recommendation two reports ago: “Transparent.”

In this week’s report, she found the Ford government to be anything but.

The Environmental Bill of Rights enshrines the right of citizens to participate in government processes and hold it accountable. But Lysyk concluded that is far from being met.

Some ministries did not have, or did not follow, procedures to ensure they comply with the act’s requirements, she said.

In 2020-21, ministries met her office’s audit criteria in just 63 per cent of cases – about the same as it has in the two previous years.

And here’s an eyepopper: “In particular, the Environment Ministry fully met just 18 per cent of our criteria.”

Decisions made at Queen’s Park have an impact on things as basic as air and water quality, wildlife and plant survival, land use, human health and well-being.

They can be a matter of which species lives or dies away, or whose life expectancy or quality of life diminishes.

Citizens have a right to participate in such decisions. Yet the current government, as portrayed in this week’s report, shrugs.

The report blamed a “lack of leadership” in the Environment Ministry and failure across government to make a priority of complying with the Bill of Rights.

Parliamentary democracy can be a nuisance to a first minister. All that due diligence and such.

And when you’re a premier whose ads say you like to give a quick, enthusiastic “yes” to big projects, process and transparency can be a total pain.

Even so, the premier and his ministers would do well to remember who they work for.

And that the warming planet we call home is sending an urgent message.