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AlvinofDiaspar
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From the Star:
Ontario to speed eco-study process
Plan streamlines eco-study process Goal to get transit,
dumps built faster
Jun. 7, 2006. 05:37 AM
KERRY GILLESPIE
QUEEN'S PARK BUREAU
The province wants to make it easier for municipalities and private companies to overcome the not-in-my-backyard syndrome and build environmentally sound landfills and incinerators.
Yesterday, the province released proposals to streamline the environmental assessment process for large infrastructure projects like highways, transit lines, landfills and incinerators.
"Everyone involved knows that the current environmental assessment process can be slow, often confusing and costly.
"We need to be able to say yes more quickly to green-light projects that are environmentally protective, necessary and constructive, and no to projects that are neither environmentally responsible nor viable," Environment Minister Laurel Broten said.
Ontario is in the midst of a waste-disposal crisis, with municipalities and businesses, sending nearly 4 million tonnes of garbage to Michigan each year because there is nowhere to put it here.
Municipalities face stiff opposition from local residents when they try to site a landfill or incinerator and have long been asking the province to help by fixing the assessment process, which is supposed to measure the potential environmental effects of a project.
"It is not uncommon for the environmental assessment process to be used as a mechanism to block a project; there's no doubt about it," Broten said, adding that the proposed changes would make it clear the process is about finding the best scientific solution and not about building a consensus.
The provincial proposals, which will undergo public consultation over the next few months, could reduce the average length of time to build a new landfill from five years to 3.5 to four years, a highway from five years to three years and a transit line from four years to 1.5 to two years, according to the environment ministry.
The government seems to be on the right track but the lack of detail makes it impossible to say just how effective the proposed changes will be, some municipalities and private waste management players said.
AoD
Ontario to speed eco-study process
Plan streamlines eco-study process Goal to get transit,
dumps built faster
Jun. 7, 2006. 05:37 AM
KERRY GILLESPIE
QUEEN'S PARK BUREAU
The province wants to make it easier for municipalities and private companies to overcome the not-in-my-backyard syndrome and build environmentally sound landfills and incinerators.
Yesterday, the province released proposals to streamline the environmental assessment process for large infrastructure projects like highways, transit lines, landfills and incinerators.
"Everyone involved knows that the current environmental assessment process can be slow, often confusing and costly.
"We need to be able to say yes more quickly to green-light projects that are environmentally protective, necessary and constructive, and no to projects that are neither environmentally responsible nor viable," Environment Minister Laurel Broten said.
Ontario is in the midst of a waste-disposal crisis, with municipalities and businesses, sending nearly 4 million tonnes of garbage to Michigan each year because there is nowhere to put it here.
Municipalities face stiff opposition from local residents when they try to site a landfill or incinerator and have long been asking the province to help by fixing the assessment process, which is supposed to measure the potential environmental effects of a project.
"It is not uncommon for the environmental assessment process to be used as a mechanism to block a project; there's no doubt about it," Broten said, adding that the proposed changes would make it clear the process is about finding the best scientific solution and not about building a consensus.
The provincial proposals, which will undergo public consultation over the next few months, could reduce the average length of time to build a new landfill from five years to 3.5 to four years, a highway from five years to three years and a transit line from four years to 1.5 to two years, according to the environment ministry.
The government seems to be on the right track but the lack of detail makes it impossible to say just how effective the proposed changes will be, some municipalities and private waste management players said.
AoD