{"id":8598,"date":"2010-01-05T09:00:37","date_gmt":"2010-01-05T14:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=8598"},"modified":"2013-01-21T13:38:57","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T18:38:57","slug":"environmental-assessment-assessment-gardiner-reconfiguration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2010\/01\/05\/environmental-assessment-assessment-gardiner-reconfiguration\/","title":{"rendered":"Environmental Assessment: the Gardiner reconfiguration"},"content":{"rendered":"

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This is the first of a four-part series of articles exploring the Environmental Assessment process and how it’s shaping Toronto. The series will focus on four major developments currently at the EA stage.<\/em><\/p>\n

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\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Of the people, for the people, by the people.<\/p>\n

Sure, Lincoln may have been referring to American governance in his Gettysburg Address, but his words stand for Ontario\u2019s Environment Assessment Act too. Indeed, the Province inscribed our primary environmental planning tool with Lincoln\u2019s sentiment: \u201cThe purpose of this Act is the betterment of the people of the whole or any part of Ontario by providing for the protection, conservation, and wise management in Ontario of the environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

But how well does our Environmental Assessment Act work? Does this safeguard ensure that our environment is protected? Does it facilitate the betterment of the people of Ontario? How would we know if it did?<\/p>\n

Over the course of this four-part series, I\u2019ll be assessing the Environment Assessment (EA) process. Using the lens of four major projects currently winding their way through the bowels of the EA system, I hope to share some perspective on the nature of the process and its success in protecting our environment. First up: the Gardiner Expressway and Lake Shore Boulevard Reconfiguration Project.<\/p>\n

Initiated in 2008 by the City of Toronto and Waterfront Toronto, a corporation set up by federal, provincial, and municipal authorities to oversee revitalization of the waterfront, the Gardiner Reconfiguration will determine the future of two major arteries and reinvent our relationship with the waterfront. Because of the scale and nature of the project, it been termed an \u201cIndividual Environment Assessment.\u201d With an eye to the potential for large environmental impacts, the Ministry of the Environment requires that a Terms of Reference (ToR) document be produced to guide the EA process. Think of the ToR as a map to guide us from an infrastructure idea to a (hopefully) revitalized reality.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The City and Waterfront Toronto released their ToR in September of this year. It\u2019s an impressive document, packed with holistic \u2014 if lofty \u2014 goals like revitalizing the waterfront, reconnecting the city with the lake, balancing modes of travel, achieving sustainability, and creating value. (For an overview, see Jake Schabas\u2019s post<\/a> on the subject from this past summer.)<\/p>\n

The retained consulting firms, Perkins+Will, Morrison Hershfield, and Dillon Consulting, have put together an extensive plan to integrate considerations of urban design and environmental impact in the EA process. They justify the need for this project to \u201caddress current problems and opportunities…includ[ing] a deteriorated Gardiner Expressway that needs major repairs and a disconnected waterfront…revitalizing the waterfront through city building, creating new urban form and character and new public realm space\u201d and define the criteria for judging potential solutions to these problems (variables of urban design, transportation, environment, and economics).<\/p>\n

Because the Gardiner alone moves more than 200,000 vehicles each day, and because many Torontonians are concerned about the future of the waterfront, stakes for this revitalization project are high, opinions are fervent, and the visions are contentious.<\/p>\n

Nowhere is this tension more clear than in the e-consultation record that Waterfront Toronto has developed (www.gardinerconsultation.ca).<\/p>\n

One participant writes: \u201cAll the words I have heard and read about the \u2018revitalization\u2019 of the eastern waterfront have been said before, almost verbatim, years ago…I find nothing in the planning for this area that acknowledges the mistakes of the past and defines the assurance process that it is not going to happen again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, even with good intentions, the strongest safeguards, and the best-laid plans, we don\u2019t really know what beasts we may unleash in the Gardiner Reconfiguration process. The EA lacks any mechanisms to assess where we\u2019ve gone wrong in the past or to evaluate how successful our current projects are five, ten, or 50 years down the road.<\/p>\n

The ToR empowers the participants in the consulting process to determine the criteria by which we will weigh our options. But what if we pick the wrong objectives? What if we don\u2019t represent the opinions of everybody who needs to be accounted for?<\/p>\n

Another participant exhorts: \u201cI encourage people to try and think beyond your commute to work tomorrow and to think about the future and what we want to leave the next generation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Future generations play no part in the EA process. Though they will live with the consequences of our decisions, their needs are not explicitly addressed in consultation or assessment.<\/p>\n

The ToR is now in the hands of the Environmental Assessment Branch at the Ministry of the Environment. Pending their approval, the EA will soon begin in earnest. The year-long process will require public consultation, assessment of the undertaking, consideration of alternative options, descriptions of environmental impact for each course of action and an evaluation of the advantages and disadvantages of each. The proponents estimate that the EA process will cost $7,697,929.<\/p>\n

By January 2011, a complete EA document will be submitted, circulated, and evaluated by federal, provincial, and municipal authorities before a summary joint review will be released. Following 30 days of public comment, the MOE will accept, reject, or request modifications to the document.\u00a0 If accepted, a 15-day public review will follow. During this time, members of the public can request a hearing. If the Minister opts to hold a hearing, testimony may be given by proponents, reviewers, and the public to inform the EA Board\u2019s decision. The Minister then has 28 days to accept or rescind the Board\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a long and winding road from proposal to EA-approved project. An expensive round of consultations, analyses, evaluations, and revisions is the strategy we\u2019ve chosen to check and balance our biggest development decisions. In the coming articles, I\u2019ll look at the Scarborough Rapid Transit and Don River and Central Waterfront EAs to further deconstruct this process. Finally, I\u2019ll provide an assessment of whether the EA process is really serving to better the people and environments of Ontario.<\/p>\n

Next time: The Scarborough Rapid Transit Extension.<\/p>\n

photo by Isaac Peters<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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