Cuts to the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources has biologist Rob Foster worried.
Ontario’s 2012 budget, revealed last week, contains numerous planned cuts for the ministry. The Liberal government also proposed a number of unspecified changes to the Endangered Species Act, the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act and other pieces of legislation.
In order to balance the budget, the MNR announced some regional offices would close.
Foster, principal of Northern Bioscience, said closing those offices and possibly layoffs has him worried the ministry may not have enough bodies to manage the huge land base properly.
“It’s a small ministry to start with, it doesn’t have that many resources in terms of personnel and funding to run the programs that they have,” Foster said.
“I can understand we have a small population and small office compliments here but we have a large land base to manage.
“The more you reduce the size of the MNR staff, the less ability you have to manage these resources. I worry that if you close field offices and lay off staff you still have to manage that land base. There’s only so much you can cut before you can’t deliver.”
Northern Bioscience does ecological consulting in support of natural resource protection and development.
The organization often works with the MNR, the federal government and private companies and most of the work consists of studies and research on fish, plants and animals.
Traditionally, the MNR operated with a species-by-species approach. Since the Ontario budget, that method is expected to change to a broader risk-based ecosystem approach.
Foster said the different approach will make it so the MNR looks at an entire area for recovery instead of individual species. But this method comes with a risk.
There is a chance for some species to be overlooked, he said.
“Sometimes you have to do a real risk assessment to ensure you aren’t missing out on those species that aren’t covered by the broader habitat protection,” he said.
Both the provincial and federal governments have put in place policies to streamline natural resource based industries.
For example, the federal government placed a one project, one review policy for project developments.
Foster said he has to wait to see how the governments go about implementing these types of strategies. In many cases, having the processes streamlined could be a good thing because it can eliminate any overlap.
But it all depends on the final wording, he said.
“You don’t want to be producing two documents that are duplicates of each other,” he said.
“You want the most efficient use of resources. There’s definitely some room for improvement in terms of coordination between provincial and federal environmental assessments.”
Natural Resources Minister Michael Gravelle said the three-year transformation plan will only go forward if the provincial budget is passed.
The next phase once it does pass is discussions with stakeholders, he said.
Gravelle pointed out that even Environment Commissioner of Ontario Gord Miller agreed that having a big-picture approach to resource management is superior to species-by-species risk assessment.
While there will be changes to the Endangered Species Act, Gravelle said the core principles of the act will remain the same and thinks the MNR can manage Ontario’s natural resources on a larger scale.
The MNR handles 46 pieces of legislation and manages 300 types of permits and authorization. In order to get those permits, people and businesses will have to meet certain standards set out by the ministry.
Gravelle said having permits based on risk management instead of species-by-species will help speed up the process.
“We think this is a system that I think honours the principles in the Endangered Species Act and other pieces of legislation as well but sets up a standard which people can recognize that need to reach,” Gravelle said.
“We need to work closely with the environmental community, industry and municipalities. I got some strong reactions on the Endangered Species Act and how it works.
“There’s some real work involved. This is about setting standards that meet the principles of the legislation while making it less unwieldy, which is one of the criticisms that we’ve received.”
In regards to shutting regional offices or laying off staff, Gravelle said there’s no decision yet on what they plan to do.
With possible fewer staff and less regional offices to work out of, Gravelle said enforcement will be an issue to address.
“If we are successful on a large ecosystem management basis and setting standards then we need to find the appropriate way to see there’s enforcement in place for those that don’t meet those standards,” he said.
“We believe we can achieve that. This is not uncomplicated but we think it is very much the right direction to go in and finding that balance.”
