When Ontario’s Auditor General recently released her money-for-value audits and annual report under the Environmental Bill of Rights (EBR), considerable media, public, and political attention focused on her findings regarding species at risk, spills of hazardous chemicals, waste management, and climate change matters.
However, the Auditor General’s EBR report also flagged a little-known but significant problem: the Ontario government’s ongoing failure to conduct any public education or outreach programs to inform Ontarians about how to use their important rights under the EBR.