LOW submits comment on Proposed Statement of Environmental Values of the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure

The Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure (MEI) is proposing a new Statement of Environmental Values (SEV). The proposed wording has been posted to the Environmental Registry for a 45 day comment period, from December 23, 2009 to February 6, 2010.

The new SEV is being developed because of the restructuring that led to the creation of the MEI in 2008. The MEI was formed from the June 20, 2008 merger of the former Ministry of Energy and Ministry of Public Infrastructure Renewal. The former Ministry of Energy’s SEV dates from

2001, when the ministry was named the Ministry of Energy, Science, and Technology. The former Ministry of Public Infrastructure Renewal was not prescribed under the Environmental Bill of Rights (EBR) and did not have an SEV.

The SEV’s are required for all ministries prescribed under the EBR. The MEI became a prescribed ministry through an amendment to O.Reg. 73/94 on September 23, 2009. Section 7 of the EBR says that the MEI was required to create a draft SEV within three months of becoming a prescribed ministry, which made that deadline December 23, 2009. The final SEV must be in place nine months from September 23, 2009, so that the Ministry has an SEV in place by June 23, 2010 (s.9(1)). The MEI is required to undergo a public review and to consider public comments before finalizing the SEV.

Read our entire submission in PDF format here.