Environmental Commissioner of Ontario

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The Environmental Commissioner of Ontario ("ECO") is an office of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, Canada. The Commissioner is a public servant and does not report to any single Ministry, but rather to the Legislature itself.

The Commissioner is appointed by the government, on the advice of the Legislature, for a term of five years, and must swear to "faithfully and impartially exercise the functions of the office," which is to uphold and protect the Environmental Bill of Rights.

The office of the Commissioner was created by the New Democratic Party of Ontario government of Bob Rae. Eva Ligeti was appointed Ontario's first Environmental Commissioner in May 1994 by an all party committee of the Legislature. On August 18, 1999, the Progressive Conservative government decided not to renew Ligeti's term. Without any notice, and without consulting any opposition parties, they appointed Ivy Wile as a temporary Commissioner, and made it known that they were considering abolishing the office of Environmental Commissioner.

The current Commissioner is Gord Miller, who was appointed in 2000 by the Mike Harris Progressive Conservative government, then re-appointed in 2005 under the Ontario Liberal Party government of Dalton McGuinty for a second term.

In April, 2007, the ECO published its seventh Special Report, "Doing Less with Less: How shortfalls in budget, staffing and in-house expertise are hampering the effectiveness of MOE and MNR." This report details the how two Ontario ministries that bear the main burdens for environmental protection have suffered a gradual but steady erosion of funding, staffing and expertise.