We all depend on the health of our natural environment to sustain life. The Green Party believes it is unacceptable that air pollution kills 1,900 Ontarians a year or that asthma rates are 20 times higher today than they were 20 years ago or that unsafe water causes 90 deaths every year in Canada.

The Green Party of Ontario believes that all living things, especially our children, have the right to live in a healthy environment with clean air, land and water.

Water

Every person in Ontario has the right to drink and enjoy clean water. Currently, this right is threatened by pollution and commercial exploitation. We must take control of the way our water is managed to ensure it remains clean and freely available for future generations.

To achieve these goals, the Green Party of Ontario will:

■ Implement a Sustainable Water and Sewage Systems Act by 2010:
● Ensure full operational and lifecycle cost-recovery for water and sewer services via water rates
● Eliminate polluted runoff to waterways by establishing design and construction standards that require no net loss of permeability for residential and commercial development
● Create an incentive for municipalities to purchase and distribute residential rainwater-harvesting systems such as rain barrels to reduce urban runoff in established communities

■ Implement a total volume cap on water-taking permits. This cap will limit water taking to an environmentally sustainable level.

■ Tax all water taking at an initial rate of $100 per million litres (ML) to encourage conservation. The highest water-taking fee previously proposed in Ontario was a mere $3.71/ML, which will have little impact on water consumption. By contrast, the United Kingdom charges approximately $250/ML. Usage for agriculture will be exempted.

■ Ban the diversion of water from the Great Lake Basin in bottles under 20 L. Bottles under 20 L are exempted from the current ban. Because of this loophole, large quantities of water are being diverted from the Basin and exported outside of Ontario.

■ Implement a Water Conservation Plan in areas where usage may have an environmental impact with measurable targets for industry and municipalities. Incentives and funding will be provided to those municipalities and businesses that demonstrate a strong commitment to the Water Conservation Plan. As part of this plan, all water-taking permit-holders must reduce takings when any nearby community is under a water ban or reduction.

■ Revise the Clean Water Act to allow for splitting of fines against polluters with citizens who identify and supply reliable evidence to the MOE (Ministry of the Environment) for successful prosecution, as allowed under the Federal Fisheries Act.

■ Amend the Clean Water Act to ensure that Source Protection Committees are public, local and democratic. Recent government proposals have suggested that industrial and commercial stakeholders should make up one-third of these committees, which are responsible for watershed planning. Local communities, not industry, should determine water-use planning.

■ Implement Ontario-wide standards for sewage treatment. Currently, the quality of sewage treatment varies significantly by region. The GPO will provide funding to municipalities to help with necessary upgrades to meet the new standards.

■ Work toward agreements with Quebec and the U.S. Great Lake states on standards for ballast water (ship) discharge and biological pollution. Our goal is to reach agreements that prevent the release of non-native aquatic species from vessels into the Great Lakes. The GPO will also work to strengthen programs to clean up and protect the Great Lakes by implementing the Great Lakes Charter Annex and working to strengthen the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement.

■ Add 50 new water inspectors to the Ministry of Environment’s Compliance Branch and reinstate government testing of municipal water. There are currently 101 inspectors, and the government relies
on private labs for testing.

Pollution and Air Quality

The Green Party’s economic, energy and transportation plans will reduce pollution and improve air quality with a goal of eliminating smog-alert days. However, with rising rates of cancer and other illnesses linked to these and other environmental factors, more needs to be done. Ontario needs a plan to reduce and prevent exposure to harmful substances that cause illness and cost our health system billions of dollars.

To achieve these goals, the Green Party of Ontario will:

■ Introduce legislation to establish a Pollution and Cancer Prevention Act. This act would require any company using substances on the federal National Pollutant Release Inventory to have a pollution prevention plan in place to reduce and/or eliminate the use of toxic chemicals. The act would also require the labelling of products containing carcinogens, mutagens or reproductive toxins.

■ Adopt California-style mandatory emission standards for new cars, light trucks and SUVs by 2012. These standards would be tied to vehicle size rather then weight to provide an incentive to lower fleet weight.

■ Introduce legislation to phase in a province-wide ban on the cosmetic (non-food related) application of synthetic pesticides. This will significantly reduce the level of toxins contaminating our soils and watersheds.

■ Increase fines to pay for increased enforcement of existing environmental legislation. Higher fines and better enforcement of environmental regulations will deter and punish violators.