June 6, 2000
Kamloops Daily News



It would be simplistic to say that the privatization of
Ontario's labs that tested Walkerton's water caused the
tragic deaths in that town. But the politics of
privatization were a factor.

Garry Palmateer worked for the public lab that tested
Walkerton's water. He was a microbiologist for the Ontario
Ministry of the Environment.  Palmateer found himself
unemployed when the "common sense" politics of Mike Harris
swept through Ontario.  Premier Harris decided to reduce the
size of government by shutting down the public lab.  After
all, small government is good government, right?

Palmateer wasn't out of a job for long.  He formed a private
water testing company named GAP Environmental Services, and
was joined by a core of microbiologists who used to work for
the Ministry of the Environment.  They found warning signals
in Walkerton's water and passed on the information to
Environment  Minister and the Public Utilities Commission of
Walkerton.

GAP tested Walkerton's water up to April 24th.  Palmateer's
company stopped testing their water because there was no
money in it. They moved on to more profitable consulting
ventures.  Walkerton's water commission, desperate for a lab
to test water, sent samples  to a Canadian branch of an
American lab: A&L Canada Laboratories East.   A&L agreed to
test the water as a temporary measure only.

The new lab found the same warnings as Palmateer's lab but
didn't tell the Medical Officer of Walkerton.  The Officer
would have issued a warning to boil water, which would have
saved lives.  As a private lab, A&L saw the Walkerton water
utility as the client, not the citizens of Walkerton.  In
the absence of clear direction, the allegiance of private
business is to those paying the bills, not to the public.

A&L did disclose the results to Ontario's Environment
Minister, but the Ministry did nothing to investigate
Walkerton's water.  No alarm bells went off.  The Medical
Officer wasn't warned. To understand why the Environment
Minister wouldn't be shouting warnings from the rooftops,
you need to understand the right-wing politics of the
environment.   

 In the neo-conservative lexicon, "environment" is a code
word for an impediment to business and profit-making. 
Environmental concerns of dumping animal excrement on the
ground and in waterways amounts to an obstacle to the
profits of agri-business.  The Industrial production of
animals is most efficient when thousands of livestock are
concentrated on a small areas of land, and the government of
Ontario had promoted that industry.

Industrial animal sewage is not treated, despite volumes as
great as a small city.  Although the government of Ontario
relaxed laws to enable huge cow and pig growing factories,
they made no provision to deal with the pollution that they
produce.

No regard was given to those people living on small farms
and towns in the midst of the stink and disease generated by
the crap. Rural Canadians, after all, serve one purpose --
as subjects for quaint advertisements for the products of
agri-business. 

It's the same callous disregard that the government of
Canada displayed to small-time farmers.  When prairie
farmers faced financial collapse due to weather and low
grain prices, they looked for the kind of help that farmers
in other countries had received. The federal Liberals think
that Canadians who choose a rural lifestyle are expendable,
and the government of Ontario agrees.

In the minds of neo-conservatives, environmentalists are
best thought of as crackpots. Why have a Ministry of the
Environment populated by fruitcakes who tangle business in
red tape?

It's not that private labs lack qualified staff or quality
of the health services they provide.  The problem is that
they are driven by profits, not public service.  If testing
water for a small community doesn't make much money, they
move on to something else. 

Now Gary Palmateer is back on the job, not as a biologist
working for the public labs of the Ministry, but as a
detective hired to hunt down the exact source of the deadly
strain of E. coli. I'm sure that he will do as a good job.

But after the furor of Walkerton has died down, Palmateer's
company will be seeking greener pastures elsewhere.  Little
towns like Walkerton will be left scrambling to find a lab
to test their water at a price they can afford, and
wondering why the Ministry of the Environment didn't protect
their environment.

go back to my Columns in the