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economist sunsuntribune saturday oct 22 2005 suntnbune a metroland community newspaper 34 civic ave 3rd floor stouffville on l4a 7z5 publisher ian proudfoot editor in chief debora kelly business manager robert lazurko director production interactive media john futhey advertising director distribution director marketingpartnerships retail flyer sales nicole fletcher advertising director classified real estate events management gord paolucci circulation barry black director circulation systems lynn pashko director debra weller york region printing general manager bob dean editorial if region busted it has partners stopping an expansion of yorks big pipe now is akin to closing the barn door after the horse has already bolted last week toronto councillors voted to oppose the 700million project tied to growth in king city stouffville holland landing and keswick under a motion put forward by councillor glenn de baeremaeker a longtime nemisis of progrowth interests in york a committee called on the federal government to stop the big pipes massive dewatering and asked the province to defer work in the environmentally sensitive oak ridges moraine until a full envi ronmental assessment is done when the provinces environment com missioner gord miller supported the com mittee saying york hadnt properly assessed the impact of the project mr de baerermaeker suggested the region was busted but if york region has been busted so too have the provincial and federal governments that oversee these things yorks future growth plans are not secret theyre well documented in a provincially approved official plan and its obvious for that growth to happen the big pipe must be used to ship sewage to lake ontario where it is treated yorks big pipe expansion also received approvals and underwent scrutiny by the provincial environment ministry ministry of natural resources toronto region conservation authority and federal fisheries department many york region residents tired of the inevitable congestion that comes with more homes and businesses would stand up and applaud torontos efforts to stop the big pipe but as regional chairperson bill fisch says the project is 70 per cent complete putting an end to it now may not make longterm sense not even for the environment the big pipe is running at capacity now with some municipal officials fearing sewers may back up into homes and on to streets if more room is not made soon without expansion high rises cant be built developments that help curtail urban sprawl by building up instead of out at this point it makes sense to keep an especially close eye on the construction of the pipe to ensure dewatering does as little environmen tal damage as possible perhaps as a show of good faith york region politicians can tone down defensive rhetoric and make sure all concerns are heard but to put a full stop on the project now after a large portion is already in the ground is not the best use of public resources canadas environmental record disturbingly lackin or as long as i can remem ber being canadian has always been an immense source of personal pride we live in one of the greatest countries in the world which is all the more reason why im so disturbed at where we are heading last week my foundation released a comprehensive report on canadas environmental perfor mance compared to other industri alized countries it shocked me although i suppose the writing has been on the wall for some time still it was disturbing to see just how poorly canadas environmen tal record stacks up to other wealthy countries we rank 28th out of the 30 member countries in the organization for economic co operation and development oecd based on 29 key environ mental indicators things such as air and water pollution heat- trapping greenhouse gas emis sions pesticide use and more our performance is only mar ginally better than the two coun tries at the very bottom the united states and belgium its not as though were just bad in one area were consistently awful energy consumption 28th greenhouse gas emissions 26th water consumption 29th sulfur oxides pollution 27th number of species at risk 26th nuclear waste 30th and the list goes on in fact canada did not place first in any of the 29 indicators we are decent at a few tilings such as recycling but our list of fail ures is long and depressing whats more our performance has not improved during the past decade this is not the canada i know and love polls tell us over and over canadians value our natural her itage and want to protect it for our future yet here we are one of the worst environmental offenders in the world chipping away at that heritage and threatening the health and wellbeing of future genera tions so how can we fix this mess well we cant really compare ourselves to all the countries in the oecd some such as turkey rank high on the environmental scale david suzuki but only because they are still developing and dont have a large industrial base a more fitting comparison is to look at countries that manage to protect their environment and still have a strong economy these countries such as switzerland denmark germany austria and sweden are clearly doing some thing right and they show protect ing the environment and thriving economically can go hand in hand canadas governments at many levels have failed us not because there arent wellmean ing passionate individuals work ing within them to protect the environment there certainly are such individuals from city coun cillors all the way to environment minister stephane dion we rank 28th out of the 30 member countries in the organization for economic cooperation and development oecd based on 29 key environmental indicators things like air and water pollution heattrapping greenhouse gas emissions pesticide use and more no our governments are failing us because there are no overarch ing common targets and timelines to achieve our goals and without a road map how will we ever know where were going it has become clear to me canada will continue to spin its wheels and we will fall farther and farther behind other countries until we pass a national sustainability act one that sets out the targets and timelines for our country to achieve sustainability it isnt good enough to just talk platitudes about protecting the environment and it isnt good enough to lay responsibility in the hands of the environment ministry when so many of the important decisions that affect nature and our health are outside its jurisdiction im still proud of our big beau tiful country but we are using her resources at an unsustainable rate its already affecting our quality of life and tilings will only get worse until we take decisive action as other countries are already doing quite successfully if we want our country to con tinue to be one of the greatest in the world we must change we need a national sustainability act and we need it now take the nature challenge and learn more at wwwdavidsuzukiorg letters policy the suntribune welcomes your letters submissions must be less than 400 words and include a daytime telephone number name and address the suntribune reserves the right to publish or not publish and edit for clarity and space letters to the editor the suntribune 34 cmc ave box 154 stouffville on ua7z5 nmonerrngcom j a editorial editor jim mason jmasanymgcom administration office manager vivian oneil voneilyrngcom events management shows manager bonnie rondeau brondcaugymgcom production manager pain nichols pnicholsymgcom advertising classified manager ann campbell acampbellymgcom retail manager staceyallen sallenymgcom t t t 1 managing director new business flyer sales dawna andrews dandreivsyrngcom managing director real estate mike rogerson mrogersonymgcom editorial 9055131717 fm9055137515 advertising 9055131717 classified l8007433353f 905853765 distribution 9055131717 canflan cmem qj ontario prtss com apc oaaaagi 1 6 i 1 suntnbune a york region newspaper group community newspaper the suntribune published every thursday and saturday is a member of the metroland printing publishing and distributing ltd a whollyowned subsidiary of torstar corporation metroland is comprised of 70 community publications across ontario the york region newspaper group includes the liberal serving richmond hill andthomhillvaughan citizen the economist sun markhamthe erabanner newmarketaurora stouffville suntribune georgina advocate york region business times north of the city yorkregioncom and york region printing f i 1 i