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﻿<title﻿>﻿New Socialist Magazine, Ontario Environment Network Meeting Report  - Activist Bulletin Board﻿</title>﻿

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﻿<b﻿>﻿Ontario Environment Network Meeting Report 

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by Bruce Allen﻿<br﻿>﻿

﻿<i﻿>﻿New Socialist Magazine, April - May 1999﻿</i>﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

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"Putting the Environment Back on the Election Agenda" was the theme of the Ontario Environment Network's (OEN) Spring Networking Meeting in Guelph from March 19-21. Approximately 60 people attended from across the province. Representatives announced plans to make public a series of background papers on key environmental issues immediately prior to the election. The topics addressed will include the Ontario Tories' sweeping environmental de-regulation policies and the continuing decline of the province's air and water quality. 

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

A panel discussion, "A View from the Trenches: the Last Four Years", included a representative of the Wildlands League who spoke about the Ontario government's Lands for Life program. A member of Citizens for Renewable Energy spoke about the serious inadequacies of the Ontario government's overtly pro-nuclear energy policy. Ontario Hydro is set to re-start its Bruce A and Pickering A nuclear reactors despite a litany of performance problems and safety concerns at these facilities. 

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

Caucuses met throughout the day on Saturday, March 20, including a Labour Caucus meeting attended by eleven people. Most of the deliberations at the Labour Caucus meeting were devoted to the Just Transitions Program, which addresses the need to eliminate dangerous toxic chemicals from the environment without adversely affecting the workers employed in those industries that use them. Members of the Labour Caucus are planning to organize a conference on this subject later this year. 

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

One of the highlights of the meeting was a presentation by an Ojibway spokesperson from the Grassy Narrow Reserve in Northwestern Ontario. In the mid-1970s the Ojibway at the Grassy Narroes Reserve were the victims of mercury poisoning of the waterways in the reserve by Reed Paper Inc. They now face massive clear-cutting of old growth forest on and near their traditional lands by Abitibi Consolidated Inc. The Ojibway see this as an attack on their land-based culture. 

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

They are considering blockades of the section of the Trans Canada Highway and a rail line running through the reserve as a way to protest the complete failure of Abitibi Consolidated and the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources to address their concerns. The Ojibway want a full Environmental Impact Assessment of Abitibi Consolidated's clear-cutting in the area. 

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

An all-party symposium on the environment was also held. The Tories declined the invitation to send a representative. By doing so, the Tories demonstrated their unwillingness to have their abhorrent environmental record subject to informed criticism with an election approaching. Finally, it should be noted that the Left had little presence at the OEN Spring Networking Meeting, which meant that the deliberations lacked serious discussion of the linkages between the Harris government's dangerous environmental policies and its reactionary social and economic policies. Almost no attention was given to the need to combine the fight for ecological sanity with the fight to reverse Capital's offensive against Labour. 

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿


﻿<font﻿ ﻿size="1"﻿>﻿Bruce Allen represents the St. Catharines ﻿&amp;﻿ District Labour Council on Environmental Issues and is a member of the OEN Labour Caucus. ﻿</font>﻿</font>﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿


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