The PenOpticon

It’s amazing what a little bad weather and a by-election can accomplish.  In November, a major rainstorm in Vancouver contaminated water reservoirs and forced a million residents to deal with a 12-day boil water advisory (never mind the fact that BWA’s are a sad fact of life in dozens of native communities across Canada). Then, just a day after the Vancouver BWA was lifted, Green Party leader Elizabeth May posted a stunning second place finish in the London North Centre by-election. While the actual voter turnout in that election was disappointing, May took 25% of the votes, clobbering both the Conservative and NDP candidates. She didn’t win, but she decisively proved the Green Party is now a political force to be reckoned with. As May observed "we have just witnessed… the beginning of a major shift in Canadian politics. Canada is going Green."  She — and many others — expect to see at least one GP member in the House after the next federal election.

This renewed focus on the Greens and green politics has the major party leaders falling all over each other to see who can jump highest on the environmental trampoline. With his greenest good intentions, Stephan Dion can at least say he actually sorta did something when the Liberals signed the Kyoto Accord while he was Chretien’s Environment Minister. Unfortunately, as we all know, the Libs never backed up that signature with meaningful action. A few days ago, Jack Layton graciously offered to work together with the other leaders to rewrite Harper’s failed Green Plan, although a mere 6 weeks ago, he was all set to force a confidence vote over the issue. Yesterday Harper told the Canadian Press that the environment issue is now his "top priority".  "We have to point out why the environment is a priority for the public", he arrogantly condescended.  I think we get it Mr. Harper, we’re just wondering how your wonky tax cuts and oils sands subsidies are going to help.

Wouldn’t it be grand if the major parties did sit down and formulate a comprehensive set of tax changes and regulations that would drastically reduce greenhouse gases and emissions?  I expect it would look something like the Green Party’s GP² Green Plan.  Elizabeth May has stated in the past that the Greens would be happy to support any political party that could enact such a plan. It would be a fine thing, but it is hard to be optimistic because for Harper, Dion and Layton, the environment is merely an issue, a portfolio, a file.  It is something that must simply be handled for political survival and electoral gain.

For the Greens, however, the environment is everything.  It’s fundamental and determines the kind of economy and the level of health that is actually possible.

That’s why I’m voting for Green in the next election.

If you happen to live in an urban area, you probably walk, cycle or drive by a stormwater retention pond almost every day. If you are not sure, just look for a medium-sized, murky body of water surrounded by a few acres of grass and geese (and the requisite industrial arrangement of precast stone, shrubs and riverrock).  That’d be the one. Your local retention pond may smell like something leaking from the bottom of a supermarket dumpster, but it plays an important role, catching run-off from roads, parking lots and over-fertilized lawns, and filtering it so that less bad stuff finds its way downstream into rivers and lakes. From the civil engineer’s perspective, these ponds are utilitarian machines, but to the real estate developer they can be a powerful marketing device. "Live with Nature", the developers tell us, and "Ravine Lots Available". Where I live, such signs usually denote nothing more than the fact that a creek or drainage ditch will be allowed to flow behind a row of houses, connecting one storm retention pond to another.

It seems to me that this kind of "life with nature" contributes to an urban idea of the nature world that is simplified, artificially controlled and patently false. It is also sometimes dangerous. Last weekend, two young boys decided to walk across a stormwater retention pond that had partially iced over. After testing the thickness with small stones, they began to cross over. One fell in and the other drowned trying to save him. Was this tragedy caused by a mistaken faith in their own youthful immortality? Or, have we merely created an over-developed urban landscape that makes it impossible for people to viscerally experience the beauty  — and the danger — of a truly natural world?

To further confuse the issue is the fact that stormwater retention ponds actually provide poor habitat for fish and birds.  But beggars can’t be be choosers, so some species try to make a go of it regardless of the water quality.  According to the Ontario Ministry of the Environment’s manual Stormwater Management Practices (OMOE, 1994), "stormwater ponds should be considered treatment facilities and not a replacement for natural wetlands", but this is exactly what they have become.  Today we went out for the Audubon Christmas Bird Count and found northern and shrike great blue herons, along with the usual suspects, at local retention ponds.  We are supposed to enjoy looking at these ponds, but god help you if you fish or swim or otherwise "use" one of them. After last week’s drowning, the president of the development made this clear in an interview with the Toronto Star:

"This is a very vital pond," said Madden, president of Diral Development Corp. Unfortunately, the increasingly complex array of municipal, provincial and federal approvals required for stormwater retention ponds is forcing developers to landscape these areas to look like parks, he said. "It’s not a lake. It’s not for recreational use. So don’t entice people to go there," he said in an interview today.  "Don’t put walkways around it. Don’t landscape it like it’s part of the parks system. Landscape them with tall grasses to keep people away."

In other words, buy into the "live with nature" marketing dream, but once you move in, just look at "nature" from a safe distance — don’t come near it.  Am I mad to think that this way of living is madness? Am I crazy to question Ontario’s "Places to Grow Plan", which anticipates the population of the GTA will double within 25 years? Am I wrong to think that we have essentially reached the carrying capacity of our own environment?  We’re full up folks, although there appears to be plenty of physical space in which to put people.  This is all the more worrisome when you consider the millions of environmental refugees that are expected to flood into developed countries in the coming decades. By trying to become the lifeboat of the world, will we all drown?

It’s business as usual at Hydro One Inc, Ontario’s largest electricity distribution company. Senior executives and their secretaries are making frequent use of corporate credit cards to purchase "gifts" and God knows what else. According to Jim McCarter, Ontario’s Auditor General, some $127 million was billed last year with almost no receipts to show where and how this money was spent. Meanwhile, us dopey Ontarians fork over extra money every month to retire Ontario Hydro’s infinitely large debt. McCarter also took school boards, hospitals and many other nooks and crannies of the public sector to task for waste and iffy accountability. You can read the gory details yourself if you dare. Much of this abuse stems from the widespread use of purchasing cards — PCards — which have been used to buy DVD’s, eyeglasses, Christmas lights, leather jackets, gift certificates, candy, chocolate, household supplies and a bajillion other items at our expense. And yet, this government has the gall to worry that a few homeless bottle pickers might "cash in" on the newly-announced 20-cent wine bottle deposit program by hoarding older bottles and returning them when the program starts.

The Hydro One accounting anomalies are reminiscent of the furor over Eleanor Clitheroe when she presided as CEO from 2000 to 2002. Those were heady days when the utility was poised to go public. As Canada’s highest paid civil servant, Clitheroe pulled down 2.3 million a year, made use of corporate limos for her children and nanny — and apparently even for her cat. Clitheroe argued that such perks were provided in lieu of her taking maternity leave. There were other allegations involving home renovations that were billed to the corporation and along with personal country club memberships, etc. But, the nuclear waste hit the fan when we learned of a golden handshake deal that would let Clitheroe walk away with a multi-million dollar pension and three years salary for her trouble. Since getting the corporate boot, Clitheroe went on to become an Anglican priest, though she is still suing the Ontario government over her severance package and pension.

There is little point in rehashing any of this, except that last month’s Canadian Business features this gem of an article by Thomas Watson: An Apology for Eleanor Clitheroe. According to Watson, "Reverend Ellie" was actually a victim in the whole affair. Seems she was double-crossed by Ernie Eves and his Conservatives when they sacrificed her in order to try to save themselves. Well, that sounds about right, doesn’t it? But a victim!!!!? After all, Clitheroe was a willing participant in the whole affair and stood to gain considerable personal wealth from the privatization of Hydro One.

Oh well, I guess we shouldn’t be too surprised by the Canadian Business view of the world, but it is sad to see how the media can sometimes be co-opted to defend this kind of rot. It might make the job of cleaning it up (if that is even possible) all that much harder. Ya think?

Apart from a few sound bites on the hourly CBC news, I decided not to torture myself last weekend — I didn’t watch any of the Liberal leadership convention. Fact is, I have to keep smacking the side of the head to remember: "I am not a Liberal!" Slap! "I am not a Liberal!" Slap. "I am not a Liberal!" Slap. And so on. Even if Dion proves to be as intelligent and honest as he seems, he’ll still be surrounded by the big red, slow-moving, patronage-pedaling Liberal machine, won’t he? Dion is supposed to be a green Liberal, — just ask his dog — but who knows how green he’ll be allowed to be if the Liberals form a government in 2007. After all, the Grits learned early on how to posture about the environment better than most other parties. Remember when they signed the Kyoto accord during the Chretien era and then did little else besides pay Rick Mercer to tell us about the One Ton Challenge.

Ah, well. Time will tell, won’t it? In the meantime, welcome back to Ottawa, Stéphane. Keep yer stick on the ice, watch out for Celine, and give Harper a whole lotta Hell. He’s been asking for it!