THE MOST STARTLING, but not surprising, revelation from a representative of a major

firm of engineers last Thursday was to the effect that the provincial Ministry of the Environment (MOE) doesn't favour technological advances until they have somehow been proven in Ontario.

It is startling because, if it is totally accurate, it is an indication that the ministry lacks a sense of urgency to do the job it is paid to do: simply, to approve measures that would ensure a clean water supply, clean air, and a generally clean environment.

It is not surprising because, in truth, not all engineers are innovators, and those who have chosen to work for government are no exception. No matter how well schooled they are, it is a fact that their instruction came mostly from professors whose background was in the technology and methods of yesteryear.

Consider that the ministry as recently as the 1980s vetoed incineration on the strength of its knowledge of old-time smokestacks, and over the empirical evidence of non-contamination at a new-style incinerator in Peel.

Dufferin County at the time had begun its Waste Management Master Plan study. Orangeville's then reeve, Arnold Patterson, favoured EFW (energy from waste) to be derived from an incinerator to provide electricity for the new hospital.

This was ruled out on the basis of cost, available feedstock, and the New Democratic Party government's decision that Ontario should have no more incinerators - no matter how efficient or clean they might be.

The ministry instead favoured a garbage dump, to be built with the best available technology of the 1980s, even when faced with the fact that such dumps built with the "best available technology" of prior years were leaching contaminants into the groundwater and releasing methane gas into the environment and even into residential buildings.

A representative of MacViro, a major engineering firm, referred to the ministry's stance as the "regulatory environment."

Well, we have seen the results of clinging to outdated principles. It is time for the regulations to be geared to emerging technology.

How far removed the ministry (and the government which in the long run determines its policies) is from such an approach can bed witnessed by visiting the MOE's website.

On its "home page" is a statement summarizing the ministry's current position. Titled, "Ontario's Approach to Protecting and Conserving the Province's Land Resources," it reads:

"Ontario's Ministry of the Environment (MOE) has been protecting and conserving the province's land resources for over 30 years. Using stringent regulations, comprehensive environmental approvals and standards, targeted monitoring and enforcement, effective recycling, reuse and reduction programs, safe tracking and disposal of hazardous waste and a variety of innovative programs to clean up and reclaim land long thought lost, the ministry continues to reach new heights in the protection of our precious lands."

Nowhere in this statement, or elsewhere on the website, is there even a hint of the government's policy toward, or research into, the emerging technologies such as gasification or high-tech incineration.

It's almost as if no one in the McGuinty government sees any possible alternative to landfills, even for cities like Toronto which have no potential dump sites.