I’m writing to you as a…

I’m writing to you as a concerned Ontarian, about the proposed changes to monetary penalties for polluters (Schedule 9, Bill 132).

Despite your claim that proposed changes in Schedule 9 will hold polluters accountable, they won’t. Eliminating daily fines and capping total fines will make it easier and cheaper for industry in Ontario to illegally dump sewage in our water, use toxic pesticides and pollute the air.

Under the Water Resources Act, for example, the maximum fine used to be $100,000 per day. In Bill 132, the proposal is for it to be a maximum of $200,000 per contravention.

Fines need to be tough enough to force industry to take every precaution to prevent leaks, spills and toxic pollution, and to hold corporations accountable when they pollute, dump, and spill their toxic waste into our clean lakes and rivers. The proposed changes in Schedule 9 do neither.

I am joining a movement calling on you to remove Schedule 9 from Bill 132, and to keep the fines as they currently are.

Ontarians take their clean environment seriously; this government has already lost a lot of support because of its environmental policies. If the Schedule 9 proposal goes forward, it will lose even more.