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Ontario's Bill 23 included a suite of changes to legislation, regulations and policies. One issue of significant importance are the changes to Ontario's Wetland Evaluation System (OWES). The proposed changes to OWES are misguided, despite the claim by the government that the changes are to support the construction of 1.5 million housing units over the next ten years. The CEA in conjunction with Ontario Nature and dozens of other Ontario groups wrote to the Ontario Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry to express our objections to the government's plans for the OWES. Read the letter.

Friends of Ojibway Prairie, Citizens Environment Alliance and other groups have cited four issues to implement and enhance proposed legislation to establish the Ojibway National Urban Park in Windsor. The groups provided a written submission to the parliament committee reviewing the proposed legislation.

Read the submission and media release.

2022 marked the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (GLWQA) between Canada and the United States. In late 2021, individuals and groups, including the CEA, formed the Great Lakes Ecoregion Network (GLEN) to celebrate 50 years of GLWQA achievements, critique its limitations, and consider actions to safeguard the Great Lakes in the next 50 years. With this in mind, GLEN recently published the report The Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement At Fifty.

Read the report Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement Turns Fifty.

The CEA has a few recommendations about how to improve and sustain Ontario's ecosystems. In collaboration with other environmental groups, we forwarded a detailed survey, based on our recommendations, to the provincial parties. Find out how they responded, http://www.greenprosperity.ca/election/.

Each year, more than 4 million tonnes of plastic is produced in Canada, but less than 10% of it actually gets recycled. About 8,000 tonnes of plastic waste ends up in landfills, incinerators or the natural environment EVERY SINGLE DAY. Citizens Environment Alliance along with 48 other groups, are demanding that the federal government do more, faster, to achieve its commitment of Zero Plastic Waste by 2030. Read the call to action.

Given that the impetus to organize the Citizens Environment Alliance (CEA) was the result of hazardous spills into the Great Lakes in 1985, the CEA accepted an invitation to participate in a hazardous spills audit of the Ontario government performed by the Office of the Auditor General of Ontario this year. The report cites inadequate regulation of spills (thousands of spills occur on average per year in Ontario), a failure to provide the public with sufficient information in a timely manner and a failure to penalize polluters or even recoup costs of spill remediation. Ontario may not have learned much from the 1985 toxic blob spill into the St. Clair River. Read the report.

The CEA is concerned about the lack of a coordinated response by Canada and the U.S. to the contamination of the Great Lakes by per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) - the forever chemicals. In collaboration with 22 other groups, the CEA wrote to the Canadian and U.S. governments urging them to work together in developing a joint binational strategy to address these chemicals in the Great Lakes region. Read more...

The CEA joined with 28 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) across Canada to request that the Canadian government address plastic pollution in Canada without further delay. Specifically, the NGOs asked that “plastic manufactured items” be listed in the Canadian Environmental Protection Act as toxic substances by the end of February 2021. Read the letter.