| Apr 12, 2012


David O’Toole, Deputy Minister of the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR), delivered a video message to ministry personnel in the wake of last month’s provincial budget.

The News has obtained a transcript of the video, which outlines what O’Toole called “the ministry's Transformation Plan” which he said “will essentially become our business-planning roadmap over the next three years."

The message starts off by saying that over the past two decades the MNR budget had declined as a proportion of government spending, while “at the same time our regulatory and legislative mandate has expanded and become more complex.”

Since 1991 the ministry's budget has been reduced from 1.5% of the provincial budget to 0.5%, and staffing levels have decreased from 5,800 Full Time Equivalent positions (FTE’s) to 3,300.

“However, during the same period, our legislative responsibility has grown from 28 pieces of legislation to 46,” O’Toole said, leaving the ministry with a “significant internal deficit, in the range of $50 million annually”

As a result, O’Toole acknowledges that the environmental community has been disappointed in the ministry's ability to manage Ontario’s natural resources; stakeholders are frustrated by the ministry's limited human and financial resources; and the environmental commissioner continues to criticize the MNR’s ability to protect the province's natural resources.

Among the changes that O’Toole outlines in the plan to reform the ministry are a “focus on core business lines of fish and wildlife, forestry, Crown land management, water, parks and protected areas, non-renewable resources and public safety.”

While the changes will include streamlined permitting processes and better use of online tools, O’Toole said the ministry will also be able to back away from some direct responsibilities and “delegate the authority to issues certain types of licenses or permits to a non-governmental organization.”

The MNR will also shift to something called a “permit by rule” system in which “individuals or organizations are deemed to have approvals if they conform their compliance with standards established in regulation as opposed to detailed review by ministry staff.”

Other parts of the plan include a decrease in the number of ministry offices, and that the ministry move “away from detailed review and approval of site-specific activities” and “take a more risk-based approach”.

O’Toole indicates on two occasions that the MNR will tolerate more risk than in the past.

“The ministry will also manage a higher level of risk in resource management decisions, compliance and enforcement, monitoring and assessment,” he said at one point.

Later, he said the following: “Resource monitoring programs will be re-designed to reduce delivery costs. These programs will be consistent with the ministry’s higher tolerance for risk and the move to landscape level planning".

Stewardship councils, which are an outreach program of the MNR that engages volunteers in all of the rural counties in the province, will apparently lose all support from the ministry.

“And we will develop a new model to support stewardship delivery and partnerships. This model will re-orient ministry stewardship assistance away from direct staff support …”

O’Toole’s statement concludes by reiterating that once all of the changes are in place there will be “fewer people, places and programs” in the Ministry of Natural Resources.

The News has contacted the MNR seeking clarification about the future of stewardship councils, the concept of “permit by rule” approvals and what exactly “higher tolerance for risk” will mean to the environment.

We did not receive a response in time for this week’s edition but we hope to have something from the MNR in time for our April 19 edition.

 

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