Today, the Pembina Institute released a year long study examining the self-inspection system adopted by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) for the province's forest industry in 1998. The 84-page report, "Industry Self-Inspection and Compliance in the Ontario Forest Sector" was written by Dr. Mark Winfield, and legal analyst Hugh J. Benevides LL.B., and is available at www.pembina.org.
The adoption of the self-inspection system followed a 50% reduction in the MNR's staff between 1996 and 1998. In Ontario, forestry companies currently inspect their own operations and report their violations of forest management laws and regulations. The self-inspection system is the MNR's primary means of ensuring that the forest industry is in compliance with laws and regulations dealing with forest fire prevention, road-building, the protection of waterways and fish habitat, pesticide use, cutting, forest renewal, and spills of fuels and hazardous materials.
Major findings in the Pembina Institute report include:
- There has been an almost total transfer of primary compliance inspection responsibilities from the MNR to forest companies since 1998. (As of April 2003, the MNR only conducted primary compliance inspections in one of the province's 68 forest management units — Temagami).
- There has been a 2/3 reduction in MNR forestry compliance and inspection staff since 1998, from 139 full-time equivalents to 45.5 today.
- As a result, there is now only one MNR inspector per 550,000 hectares of Crown forest under license.
- The report identifies major differences in the performance of industry and MNR-employed inspectors in identifying forest industry non-compliance.
- The remaining MNR inspectors identify non-compliance with forest management rules at a much higher rate than their industry-employed counterparts.
- The study raises serious questions about the legality of the delegation of inspection responsibilities to forest companies, and the consistency of the self-inspection system with the Terms and Conditions of the 1994 Class Environmental Assessment of Timber Management on Crown Lands.
- The study finds that the MNR failed to assess the forest companies' ability to carry out inspections before transferring inspection responsibilities to them.
- The MNR has yet to establish mandatory training and certification requirements for non-ministry employed "inspectors."
- No specific provisions have been made to protect these industry "inspectors" from retaliation by their employers for reporting violations of forest management rules to the MNR.
- The study questions whether the MNR even has the ability (staff capacity and resources) to effectively oversee the industry self-inspection system.
"The MNR — forest industry inspection system is one of most aggressive self-regulation systems seen so far in Ontario. Our study raises serious questions about this system's effectiveness in ensuring forest industry compliance with existing forest management rules, and the ability of the public to access information about the management and health of our Crown forests," said Dr. Mark Winfield, Director of the Pembina Institute's Environmental Governance Program.
Dr. Winfield went on to say, "The Report's important findings and observations are timely. The MNR is currently seeking to reduce both the number and quality of forestry and environmental regulations by weakening the rules in the Environmental Assessment of Timber Management on Crown Land which is now under renewal review."
The report concludes with recommendations that the MNR consider alternatives to the self-inspection system, including the re-establishment of its own field inspection capacity, or the establishment of an independent profession of forest operations inspectors.
For more information contact: Dr. Mark Winfield,
Director of the Pembina Institute's Environmental Governance Program @ 416-978-5656
The text of the report can be found at www.pembina.org