Watchdog blasts nuclear plan

TORONTO, ONTARIO - Ontario's decision to exempt new nuclear reactors from the province's environmental bill of rights is wrongheaded, warns Environment Commissioner Gord Miller.

Miller also rebuked the government for reneging on a commitment to reduce mercury levels in air pollution.

Both transgressions are related to Ontario's energy policy, unveiled recently.

Energy Minister Dwight Duncan announced a 20-year, $46-billion scheme to build two new reactors and look at retrofitting existing nuclear plants. But Ontario's pollution-spewing coal-fired plants are also staying open for now.

That forced Environment Minister Laurel Broten to postpone plans for Ontario to sign on to a new Canada-wide agreement to reduce mercury emissions by 50 per cent from 2003-04 levels by 2010.

"Now it's open-ended. We just can't go on with no pollution controls," said Miller, the province's independent environmental watchdog, who also expressed concern that the nuclear proposal bypasses the environmental bill of rights. That bill requires ministries to publicize any regulations that could impact the environment.

"They escaped the process whereby the people of Ontario should have been able to review and comment on the regulation to exempt the nuclear plans from an environmental assessment," Miller said.