Fedeli defends decision on realignment of Environmental Commissioner

The province’s Environmental Commissioner was in North Bay a few days ago.

At issue is the Ford governments decision to merge the commissioner’s department with the Auditor General’s office.

Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli was asked if the independence of the commissioner is being affected.

“This aligns how the federal government runs their environment department. It runs out of their Auditor General as well so we know there’ll be complete independence,” Fedeli says.

Still with the environment, Fedeli says the governments decision to cancel the cap and trade program was one of the most positive things they’ve done since taking office.

He says the Auditor General says the cap and trade dollars have gone outside the province and the program was basically photo op environmentalism and didn’t do anything to reduce greenhouse gases.

“And used it for any kind of project. It didn’t have to do with green energy or anything like that. It could be used for building a road anywhere in Ontario and used it to fund day to day expenses and that’s from the Auditor General,” he says.