P-1183

On February 15, 1994 the Environmental Bill of Rights Act (the EBRA) came into effect. The focus of this legislation is to guarantee basic environmental rights to the people of Ontario and to open the decision-making process to public scrutiny. Section 5 of the EBRA establishes an Environmental Registry (the Registry), which is a vehicle for publicizing information about the environment. The Registry, a computerized bulletin board system, is part of the Government of Ontario Information Service.

The Registry includes: information regarding the EBRA and its regulations; notice of proposals and decisions on environmentally significant legislation; policies; regulations and prescribed instruments; appeals and decisions on instruments and relevant court actions and decisions. Each item on the Registry is given a Registry number and can be located by reference to that number.

NATURE OF THE APPEAL:

The appellant submitted a request to the Ministry of Environment and Energy (the Ministry) under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (the Act) for access to all submissions received by the Ministry regarding two Registry numbers, excluding his own submissions and enclosures. The two Registry numbers relate to a proposed amendment of a regulation to remove the ban on new municipal waste incinerators, and a proposed guideline for combustion and pollution control requirements for new municipal waste incinerators.

The Ministry had received 75 submissions relating to these two Registry items. Although they are summarized on the Registry, the actual contents of the submissions are not accessible through this vehicle. Registry items involve all offices of the Ministry and the Registry indicates the office responsible for a particular item. In this case, comments were to be sent to the Ministry's Science and Technology Branch.

...

• FIPPA
• 1(a)(iii)
• 22(a)
• 57(4)
• 57(4)(c)

• fair and equitable