This 2009/10 ECO Annual Report was submitted to the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly on September 22, 2010. You can download the full report and see all related communications materials here. Click here to read other ECO Reports to the Legislature.

Contents 1 Redefining Conservation 1.1 Developing a Conserving Society 1.2 Conserving our biodiversity 1.3 Conserving Environmental Quality 1.4 Modernizing Mining in Ontario 1.5 Redefining Waste 1.6 Public Concerns Raised: Applications 1.7 Ministries and the Environmental Bill of Rights 1.8 The Environmental Registry

Redefining Conservation

• Commissioner’s message
• 1 The Environmental Bill of Rights
• 1.1 The ECO Recognition Award: Green Power for MTO’s Summer Beaver Airport
• 1.2 Education and Outreach

Developing a Conserving Society

• 2 Introduction
• 2.1 Powering the Future: The Green Energy and Green Economy Act, 2009
• 2.2 Ramping Up Renewables: MOE’s Renewable Energy Approvals
• 2.3 MNR Approvals for Greening the Grid
• 2.4 Mandatory GHG Reporting: What gets Measured gets Managed
• 2.5 Pricing Carbon: Can a Cap-and-Trade System Deliver the Tonnes?

Conserving our biodiversity

• 3 Introduction
• 3.1 Climate Change and Biodiversity Turmoil
• 3.2 Wanted: One Billion Trees
• 3.3 Species at Risk: Progress and the Path Ahead
• 3.3.1 International Year of Biodiversity
• 3.3.2 Dam the American Eels
• 3.3.3 Space for the Redside Dace
• 3.4 A Place to Call Home: Nine Species Receive Regulated Habitat Protection
• 3.4.1 Much Ado About Wood Turtles
• 3.5 Mixed Results: Wildlife Management of Caribou, Moose, Elk and Deer
• 3.6 Managing Black Bears: Thinking Beyond Harvest?
• 3.7 Forest Management: Conserving Biodiversity at the Stand and Site Scale
• 3.8 Bringing Ecological Integrity to the Landscape: Ontario’s Protected Areas Planning Manual

Conserving Environmental Quality

• 4 Introduction
• 4.1 Sewage Treatment: Not Good Enough
• 4.1.1 Ottawa’s Overflow Woes
• 4.1.2 Success Story: Guelph Optimizes its Sewage Treatment
• 4.1.3 When Bigger Isn’t Better: Decentralized Wastewater Treatment Systems
• 4.2 Moving From End-of-Pipe to Front-End Toxics Reduction in Ontario
• 4.3 Not Airtight: Amendments to Ontario’s Air Quality Regulation
• 4.4 How’s the Air on Your Street?
• 4.5 A Watershed Moment? Ontario Introduces the Lake Simcoe Protection Plan
• 4.6 The Drainage Act: Drying up Ontario’s Wetlands

Modernizing Mining in Ontario

• 5 Introduction
• 5.1 Reforming the Mining Act
• 5.1.1 The Need to Legislate Development and Mineral Exploration in Uranium Zones
• 5.1.2 Ring of Fire: Illegal Construction of Mining-related Projects
• 5.1.3 Ring of Fire: Using Mining Claims to Plan the Far North

Redefining Waste

• 6 Introduction
• 6.1 Aging Landfills: Ontario’s Forgotten Polluters
• 6.1.1 Ontario's Old Dumps: Patch them Up or Shut them Down
• 6.2 Shedding the Spare Tires: Rolling Out Ontario’s Used Tires Program
• 6.2.1 Sewage Biosolids: New Rules for Use on Agricultural Land
• 6.3 Compost: Appreciating Nature’s Sense of Humus
• 6.3.1 Biochar: The Promising Future for an Ancient Process

Public Concerns Raised: Applications

• 7 Introduction
• 7.1 Pushing for Natural Heritage Planning on the Waterloo and Paris-Galt Moraines
• 7.2 The Potential Impacts of Electricity Projects on the Environment
• 7.3 Sand Excavation: When a “Pit is not a “Pit”
• 7.4 Not Enough Time: Challenging the Appeal Period under the EBR
• 7.5 Too Much Time Waste in Cambridge Groundwater Contamination
• 7.5.1 Investigation Denied: A Convenient Dodge of an EBR Responsibility
• 7.6 Planning for Stormy Weather
• 7.7 Protecting Tourism Values in Temagami
• 7.8 More Applications of Interest: Energy Audits, Biomedical Waste and Funding for Conservation Authorities

Ministries and the Environmental Bill of Rights

• 8 Introduction
• 8.1 Keeping the EBR in Sync with New Laws
• 8.2 Statements of Environmental Values Consideration: Some Best Practices
• 8.3 No Longer in Service: Spot-Checks on Ministry Service to the Public
• 8.4 Ministry Cooperation with the ECO

The Environmental Registry

• 9 Introduction
• 9.1 Quality of Posting Information
• 9.1.1 Every Comment Counts
• 9.2 Reviews of Unposted Decisions
• 9.3 Use of Information Notices
• 9.3.1 Cage Aquaculture Licenses: Fishy Public Consultation
• 9.4 Use of Exception Notices
• 9.5 Late Decision Notices and Undecided Proposals