4 - Sunday, July 14, 1991 - North Sh--e News Public seein ed over NDP gre THE DISAPPOINTMENT with the NDP on the en- vironmental front in On- tario is rather thorough. Before being swept into office with less than 40% of the vote, Bob Rae mused aloud how the NDP ought maybe to become the “Green party.”” He even oversaw the publication of a party position Paper called Greening the Party, Greening the Province. Two summers ago, he travelled up to northwestern Ontario's Temagami wilderness area and of- fered himself up as a martyr being arrested in an effort to save some of the last stands of old-grawth pine in the province. At that time, he was vilified by elements of the labor movement for selling out the workers in favor of the hippy-dippy en- vironmentalists, The cause was not helped much when a dozen nubile young womien stripped off their clothes to go swimming in a nearby lake. The future premier was not around at the precise moment, but his nervous assistant was, hoping nothing would happen to detract from the then-opposition leader's moment of sacrifice and media glory. Rae was hauled away by the Ontario Provincial Police, saying: “A guy's gotta do what a guy's gotta do."* Half a year later, he was Premier Bob, the pale, almost ethereal leader of Canada's richest and most industrialized province. Eco-freaks cheered. Only the NDP leader had answered their questionnaires about what he would do to clean up the en- vironment, if elected. He scored nearly perfectly. Well, then, what remained to be done? Disguised as a social demo- crat, Premier Bob was widely regarded among the conserva- tion/environment/wilderness community as the Green Messiah. His designated environment minister, a white-haired Mother Earth figure named Ruth Grier — an frishwoman, wouldn't you know — was popular as a fiesty opposition critic, always accusing the ruling Liberals of going too slow, doing too little, wiggling off the hook when it came to tough environmental decisions. The NDP has now been in of- fice in Ontario for 18 months. Until very recently, they en- joyed something of a honeymoon among the greenies. Professional conservationalists were reluctant to start tromping the new gov- ernment too soon. After all, where was there to turn to politi- cally? The Tories? It is to laugh. The Liberals? Everyone knew they were about to dump their pro- gressive environment minister, Jim Bradley, as soon as the election was over. Bradley had stepped on too many Cabinet and industrial toes in his rush to do a Sow things well. He had, after all, launched the award-winning Blue Box program, and initiated a lot of reforms, some of which had just begun to show results. STRICTLY PERSONAL As the most ambitious and ef- fective provincial environment minister in the country, Bradley was a hard act to follow, even if his party and government weren't. Ruth Grier was still welcome because she promised, along with Premier Bob, to be part of a team approach to checking pollution and degradation of the environ- ment. Every ministry would be involv- ed, not just environment, she vowed. Meetings would be held. En- vironmentalists would be con- sulted. Indeed, many of them were hired directly by the NDP, either as full civil servants or as policy advisors. Perhaps many of them had sensed a chance to improve their fortunes. Whatever the reason for the uncharacteristic hand-wringing and sweetness from the eco-ac- tivists, those who were going to be hired have been hired, and those who are to be left out in the cold now know for sure that no gov- ernment job awaits them. Like it or not, they are back to being a part of the opposition. Because the sad truth is, the NDP has shut down the Ontario legislature for the summer, with ministers heading off for holidays, leaving behind almost no achievements whatsoever on the enviro-front, Normally, ail-party comimnittess or MIAS are struck tor summer duty, to take various bills around the province, asking interest groups and citizens what Chey think of such ideas. Inthe areas of energy, en- vironment and natural resources, no committees have been struck, for the simple reason that no bills were passed. There is nothing to examine. {n British Columbia, as the fall election heats up, the NDP is hop- ing to distance itself from the def- icit-loving style of its Ontario cousins, Mike Harcourt has presented himself as a strongman on the en- vironmental front, and certainly the NDP's policy positions are as ecologically hip as could be. But then, Rae looked awfully green too. Talked green. Walked green. Now, it looks more like some- thing Jime-colored, at best. Environment Minister Grier has taken off for holidays, leaving an announcement behind that she was going to use Draconian emergency powers to extend the lifetimes of two Toronto-area landfill sites, after promising in opposition to make sure no such thing ever happened. While Mrs. Grier has been in- sisting that garbage must be delt with close to home, it has been revealed that Ontario is shipping hundreds of thousands of tons of garbage south of the border to avoid soaring “‘tipping™’ fees at local dumps. 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