(Chapter 3—Spring 2012 Report of the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development)
Ottawa, 8 May 2012—The federal government has made progress in identifying contaminated sites for which it is responsible, and to date it has closed almost half of them. However, addressing the remaining sites will be a major challenge, says Scott Vaughan, Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development, in his report tabled today in the House of Commons.
“The government has reported its combined environmental liabilities at $7.7 billion”, said Mr. Vaughan. “Many of these sites are buried and out of the public eye, but they will impose human health risks and environmental and financial burdens for generations to come.”
More than 9,000 of the 22,000 sites in the federal inventory have been closed, meaning no further action is to be taken. However, the audit found that about half the remaining sites had yet to be assessed for remediation and prioritized for action. In addition, there is already a shortfall of $500 million to deal with the sites that have been assessed, and resources available for assessing the rest of the sites have shrunk significantly.
The audit also found that most of the dedicated funding that remains is focused on a few high-risk sites, so it is not clear how the thousands of other sites will be addressed.
“The government needs to assess the full impact of all federal contaminated sites on the public purse,” said Mr. Vaughan. “It is mid-way through the program, and time for the government to take stock of how it intends to manage and pay for the remaining thousands of sites across the country.”
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