Concerns regarding public participation: Cherry Beach

Summary

Lake Ontario Waterkeeper has been actively participating in the EBR process with respect to a proposal by Waterfront Toronto to establish and operate a waste disposal site on Unwin Avenue, near Toronto’s Cherry Beach, since the first aspect of the proposal was posted to the Environmental Registry on January 27, 2010.

Throughout this process, LOW has encountered instances where Ministry staff did not make pertinent documents available to the public, despite the fact that those documents could significantly change the proposal. This is a problem LOW has encountered on more than one occasion.

Lake Ontario Waterkeeper is very concerned by these failures to make key information about a proposal available to interested members of the public. These occurrences raise serious concerns about the nature of public participation when the Ministry makes decisions that could impact the environment. If Ministry staff do not consider it important to ensure the public has complete and up-to-date information about the proposal when preparing comments, it indicates that the public’s comments may not be valued or considered as mandated by the Environmental Bill of Rights.

Lake Ontario Waterkeeper made our concerns known in a letter to the Directors of the MOE’s Environmental Assessment and Approvals Branch.