Ontario slams the door on the public. Twice.

Last week, the Ontario government passed a regulation exempting all aspects of its power system plan including the proposed multi-billion dollar nuclear power plants from environmental assessments.

Ironically, Cabinet passed Ontario Regulation 276/06, a rule that eliminates public consultation, without publishing it on the Environmental Registry and without allowing for any public comment. This undermines our right to know about new regulations that could have significant effects on the environment.

Lake Ontario Waterkeeper became involved in the power system plan in order to groundtruth industry's PR campaigns, to defend fair decision-making, and to protect our waters. So, we must object to Ontario Regulation 276/06 and the utter disregard for public process shown by Cabinet.

We believe the Ontario Government must publish a notice about Ontario Regulation 276/06 on the Environmental Registry and grant the public 30 days to comment. We ask for that right now.