Ontario Liberal Landslide Could Benefit the Environment

TORONTO, Ontario, Canada, October 9, 2003 (ENS) - Ontario Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty was elected premier of Canada's most populous province October 2 on a platform that included environmental responsibility. Environmentalists are cautiously optimistic about the McGuinty government based on campaign promises he made to shut down two coal fired generating stations by 2007 and promote renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, biomass, and small-scale hydroelectric power.

The Liberals won a resounding victory, taking 72 of Ontario Legislature's 103 seats, leaving 24 for the Conservatives, who lost their governing majority, and seven for the New Democrats.

Ontario Premier-elect Dalton McGuinty has been leader of the Ontario Liberals since 1996 and the Member of the Provincial Parliament for Ottawa South since 1990. (Photos courtesy Ontario Liberal Party)

McGuinty pledged to pass legislation that will enhance the protection of lands surrounding water resources and to build a network of water monitoring stations and provide reports online.

On the campaign trail, the McGuinty promised to make the provincial hazardous waste disposal rules the toughest in North America, and to immediately ban the spreading of raw human waste on farmlands.

He would divert 60 percent of waste from landfills within five years by banning organic waste, conserve open space, and promote brownfields redevelopment.

McGuinty promised to enhance environmental opportunities for the young people of the province by hiring 1,000 each summer in an Environmental Youth Corps. "No one has a greater stake in the future, and our environment, than you do," McGuinty told a group of young voters on September 26.

Community and environmental groups will help develop projects for the youth corps, tasks such as cleaning up wetlands and woodlands, monitoring water quality in streams and lakes, and performing home energy audits, to encourage energy conservation.

McGuinty government has pledged to restore environmental education programs that were lost under the outgoing Conservative government of first Mike Harris and then Ernie Eves that has been in power for the past eight years.

Eves lost the support of environmentalists by ignoring the environment while in government and also on the campaign trail.

The Ontario Environment Industry Association has come out in support of the entire Liberal environment platform. "McGuinty's plans mean new and enhanced opportunities for the environment business in Ontario," the association said.

Dalton McGuinty talks with a colleague outside the Ontario Legislature.

While campaigning, the premier-elect promised to require that gasoline contain at least five percent clean ethanol by 2007 and 10 percent by 2010.

But the Ontario Electricity Coalition (OEC), a coalition of unions and citizens groups that includes the Toronto Environmental Alliance, delivered a stern warning to McGuinty just days before the election.

In an open letter to McGuinty, the coalition charged that Liberal Party electricity policy was "written to please private power producers." The coalition says it stands for accountable, publicly owned, environmentally responsible electrical utilities.

OEC spokesperson Paul Kahnert wrote, "Liberal Party policy would encourage an expansion of private power production, causing electricity prices to soar when the rate freeze ends in 2006."

The OEC advocates "legislated conservation" as the cheapest way to address the electricity shortage, "it’s by far the most environmentally friendly way to go," the letter states.

But Liberal party policy falls short on legislated conservation measures that protect the environment, the OEC believes. "We are heading for an electricity crisis far worse than anything yet seen in Ontario - a crisis that is entirely avoidable," Kahnert wrote.