We need a regulatory system that is based on sound regulation development that allows the public full access to information and that enables it to participate effectively in regulatory decision making. 

The Push

Business dominated governments throughout Canada are dismantling many regulatory programs meant to protect the public safety.

Business argues that detailed regulation of the environment, food safety, transportation safety, workplace safety and public health is an impediment to economic growth, competitiveness, the development of new technology and job creation.

Regrettably, governments have bought into this argument, concealing the narrow corporate interest with new words such as "global competitiveness", "flexibility", "voluntary compliance", and "self-reliance".  Governments are shedding thousands of personnel, dismantling inspection and monitoring programs, eliminating thousands of regulations and privatizing regulatory operations.

A Licence for Industry to Do as It     Pleases

In Ontario, the province's Environment Ministry has been annihilated by a two-thirds cut to its budget, resulting in massive layoffs for environment officers, scientists, pollution abatement officers and over half of its full time prosecutors.

The Ontario government has weakened the standards in the Planning Act and Mining Act, eliminating energy conservation from the Building Code, removed discharge requirements from the MISA  Pulp and Paper Regulations and eliminated required hearings for hazardous waste projects.

The Ministry of Transportation cut 630 staff, eliminating any effective government control and monitoring of highway construction contractors.

The Ministry of Agriculture is introducing a voluntary compliance program for abattoirs, exemptions from inspections of "low risk" plants, and moving to privatize meat inspections.

The Ministry of Natural Resources is privatizing its parks system and has stripped regulations from  the mining sector.  Reforestation and conservation has been handed over to the forest industry.

The government also gutted the Ministry of Labour's occupational health program by laying off occupational health program nurses and physicians, industrial hygienists, air quality technicians, and scientists, and closed the occupational health laboratory and the labour library.

The Ontario government has also introduced proposed changes to the Occupational Health and Safety Act that involve a massive reduction in workers rights and regulatory protection, and a system of voluntary compliance based on unenforceable performance regulations and codes of practice in lieu of specific regulations.

The province of Ontario has also removed minimum standards of nursing care for residents of nursing homes. 

The Myth and the Reality

All these moves to downsize the regulatory establishment, we are told, are in the interest of our well-being.

In fact, detailed regulation simply levels the playing field so that companies that do employ  safe practices will not be undercut by those who do not. 

Many corporations may not voluntarily comply or do the right thing on their own.  A 1994 KPMG Canadian Environmental Management Survey of the country's 1,000 largest corporations found that 95% of those surveyed said that they took positive action to comply with regulations.  Only 16% said they were motivated to take action by voluntary government programs.

Not in the Public Interest

Deregulation is a race to the bottom.  By giving business and industry a free reign in the "free market", deregulation will drive down the standard of living, quality of life and general health and well-being of the broader community.

A look into the findings of inquiries about public safety provides a clear picture of how deregulation affects the public's well-being.

The Commission of Inquiry into the Air Ontario Crash in Dryden, Ontario, specifically addressed the issue of deregulation in its chapters entitled;

"Effects of Deregulation and Downsizing on Aviation Safety" and "Aviation Regulation: Resourcing Process".  According to Mr. Justice Virgil Moshansky; "The effects of Economic Regulatory Reforms combined with deficit reduction...had an adverse impact on the effective application of safety standards."

(Vol. III, p.940.) And; Had the Transport Canada Aviation Regulation Directorate been in a position to discharge all of its responsibilities...some of the factors that contributed to the Dryden accident may not have arisen."  (Vol. III, p.940)

What's at Stake?  

Every day from waking to sleeping we benefit from the regulatory measures which we often take for granted.

The food we eat, the water we drink, the air we breathe, our places of work, the vehicles that take us to and fro, are all regulated for the protection of our safety and health.  The more complex our activities are, the greater is our reliance on government regulation and enforcement.

The standard of living and the quality of life we enjoy today is based on our previous efforts as a society to impose democratic control over the free market and enshrined the notion of the public interest in the political and economic landscape.

The Need for a Strong Regulatory Enforcement System

Our society is verging on a very real environmental and public health catastrophe because we do not regulate enough.

We need a regulatory system that is based on sound regulation development that allows the public full access to information and that enables it to participate effectively in regulatory decision making. 

Regulation of the public interests (our lands, our forests, our workplaces and our environment) does work to modify individual and corporate behaviour for the good of the whole society.

Our challenge is to shed and expose the corporate myths so that we might reassert our democratic control over the free market, and resurrect the notion of a public interest. #

Material from: National Union, Nepean, Ontario

Editorial note: This article appeared in the May/June 1998, issue of Seniors' Voice.