A former Conservative environment minister said political interference might explain why the province’s environment ministry has taken so long to investigate a massive sewage spill it knew about a year ago.
Carleton-Mississippi Mills MPP Norm Sterling wants to know why the ministry took so long to investigate the spill of 960,000 cubic metres of untreated sewage into the Ottawa River between Aug. 1, 2006, and Aug. 15, 2006.
“It’s either one of two things,” said Sterling. “It’s either complete incompetence (by the ministry) or political interference.”
Sterling points out the ministry was informed of the spill—in Premier Dalton McGuinty’s hometown—five months before the last provincial election.
“They do nothing until it surfaces in the media,” he said. “You think they would have made that public. This just doesn’t make any sense. There is no excuse for the ministry to be sitting on this after such a massive release into the river unless there was political consideration.”
McGuinty’s office denied Sterling’s accusation.
“That is completely false,” said McGuinty’s spokeswoman Jane Almeida. “There was no political interference involved.”
Sterling, who was environment minister in the Mike Harris government from 1996 to 1999, will ask the Liberal government on Monday to launch a public inquiry into what has become known as Sewergate.
Sterling said a spill that size into a provincial waterway should have been brought to the environment minister’s attention soon after his department was notified.
“I can’t imagine he wouldn’t have been told. He normally would have been made aware of this,” said Sterling. “I can’t believe people didn’t ask questions. Where was everybody?”
Federal Environment Minister John Baird announced yesterday his ministry has launched its own investigation into the spill.
“Our government takes this matter very seriously and will use all the resources and authorities of the federal government to get to the bottom of what happened,” he said.
Environment Canada’s enforcement branch is looking into possible violations under Section 36 of the Fisheries Act, which prohibits the deposit of harmful substances into Canadian waterways.
A city supervisor was fired this week after he admitted he lied about informing the ministry immediately after discovering the spill.
Petrie Island beach, which is located downstream from the spill and three wastewater treatment facilities, was closed 45 times in the summer of 2006 after high levels of E. coli were recorded.
Ottawa Sun