Environment an issue in Ontario election campaign

In the second of a 2-part article, The Northern Miner looks at issues affecting northern Ontario in the current provincial election.

While freer trade with the U.S. and state-owned auto insurance are dominating this provincial election, voters in Ontario’s resource-based north have additional concerns. Among them, protection of the environment and mine safety.

Last month the three major parties tabled policy statements at a meeting of the Association of Mining Municipalities of Ontario, held in Toronto. What follows is a summary. ENVIRONMENT

* Liberals — One of the association’s chief concerns is that environmental damage caused by mining practices has discouraged tourism in the region. The minority Liberal government of David Peterson claims it has already accomplished much to correct that damage.

The Municipal Industrial Strategy for Abatement (misa) program, introduced last year, is aimed at eliminating persistent toxic contaminants from all discharges into Ontario’s waterways. Under misa monitoring regulations, dischargers must measure the types, concentrations and total amounts of toxic substances present in their effluent. The Ministry of the Environment will audit this information, and limits will be placed on toxic concentrations and total amounts for each discharger.

Also, stiffer penalties (up to $500,000 a day) and imprisonment (up to one year) for polluters were announced last December. Bill 112 maximizes by up to 10 times the penalties for all pollution offences throughout the province. Among the mining-related companies recently charged under the new law are Kidd Creek Mines, Algoma Steel and Emerald Lake Resources. (Since most of these charges relate to alleged offences pre-dating the new law, the maximum fine would be only $5,000 per charge). From fiscal 1985-86 to 1986-87, all prosecutions for pollution violations have tripled and the number of convictions has doubled. The Grits are also committed to doubling to 180 the number of enforcement officers to ensure compliance with environmental laws.

In addition, the $10-million-a- year Environmental Security Fund, created in 1985, has provided for clean-up of spills, of previously contaminated areas and of leaking waste sites. The fund has been used for the clean-up of old mine sites, and the party plans to expand it.

* New Democrats — Party leader Bob Rae says forestry and tourism in the the province’s north are being threatened by acid rain, adding that three of the biggest polluters are Inco Ltd., Falconbridge and Algoma Steel’s iron sintering plant in Wawa. He says his party would ensure that the Liberals’ “Countdown Acid Rain” regulations are met through “tough enforcement measures.” The regulations, introduced in December 1985, set new targets for major polluters to reduce their sulphur dioxide emission levels by 1994. The ndp says there is no actual pollution abatement equipment employed to meet the limits, only reduced production. The party adds that it would outline com panies’ responsibilities for dealing adequately with their mine tailings. (In the legislature, the party has raised repeatedly the situation of the abandoned Kamkotia mine, near Timmins, and the environmental dangers its tailings may present.) These responsibilities would be set out in what Rae calls “Community Resource Planning Agreements” between the provincial government, the local communities and the mining companies.

Another initiative would be to treat tailings through an “environmental superfund” that would help pay for their clean-up and disposal. * Conservatives — The Tories say simply that they would provide money for mining communities and mining companies to remedy existing problems and to prevent “environmental degradation” from mining activities.

Mining communities wanting to promote local tourism would be guaranteed of financial help through existing northern tourism programs, says party leader Larry Grossman. MINE SAFETY

* Liberals — The Grits say better technological controls are the solution to health and safety problems in mines. In response, the party says it will work to make Ontario a world leader in mine hoisting, mine rescue, ground control, etc. The Miners’ Health and Safety Centre, to be established at Sudbury’s Laurentian University, will incorporate those functions.

* New Democrats — The ndp says it will fight for compensation for victims of mining illnesses and for recognition by the government that miners’ cancers are largely preventable through “tough regulation and enforcement.”

* Conservatives — The Tories say the current workers’ compensation system doesn’t address the real needs of workers. In response, they propose to immediateley set up a royal commission to suggest improvements or alternatives to the system.