Members of Sustainable Trent…

Members of Sustainable Trent, a student levy group at Trent University, are concerned about Bill 132, Better for People, Smarter for Business Act, 2019 due to changes to environmental legislation and a short consultation period of only 30 days. The short consultation period is problematic because it does not allow adequate time for the public to submit feedback. The government is supposed to be working in the interest of the taxpayers. They cannot assume our interest or what we care about without asking. (Plus increasing the likelihood of pollution from pesticides and cosmetics is not in our interest either. The risk to public health and safety should be clear). As there are 17 schedules in Bill 132 it is even more problematic to have a short consultation. A concern that we share with Environmental Defense and other environmental groups is that per day administrative penalties will be eliminated in the Ontario Water Resources Act under schedule 9. These daily fines act as an additional deterrent for companies to pollute and we feel per conviction charges will not cause companies to act quickly enough to reduce an impact of spills. In addition, to this we are concerned about changes to Section 7.1 of the Pesticides Act which will make it easier to use cosmetic pesticides. We are also concerned about changes to section 14 of the Environmental Protection Act with changes that could weaken environmental enforcement and could cause more harm to the environment. Please reconsider Bill 132 and allow for a greater consultation period of more than 30 days.
Thank you for your time.