Environmental Commissioner to give O.F.A.H. keynote
83rd O.F.A.H. Annual General Meeting and Fish & Wildlife Conference
Environmental Commissioner of Ontario, Gord Miller, will be the keynote speaker at the 83rd O.F.A.H. Annual General Meeting & Fish and Wildlife Conference in Mississauga March 17-19, 2011. Miller is currently serving a third term as an independent officer appointed by the Legislative Assembly, and is tasked with overseeing 14 ministries, most notably the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR).
“We are pleased that the Commissioner has agreed to be our keynote speaker,” said Mike Reader, O.F.A.H. Executive Director. “He has reported extensively on issues of concern to anglers and hunters and we look forward to learning more about the work he and his team do to monitor the efforts of so many ministries, particularly the Ministry of Natural Resources, on behalf of Ontarians.”
The Commissioner will address an anticipated audience of several hundred conference attendees on March 19, during the Federation’s annual awards banquet. The three day event will also feature guests such as Minister of Natural Resources, Linda Jeffrey and Conservative Leader Tim Hudak, and speakers covering outdoor related topics, including a provincial wolf and coyote study, Ontario’s first modern day elk hunt, a new provincial online fishing resource and the Algonquin land claim process.
Miller reports annually on the implementation of the Environmental Bill of Rights (EBR); Government progress on reducing greenhouse gas emissions; and actions to reduce consumption of electricity, natural gas, propane, oil and transportation fuels. In 2007, the Commissioner released a special report entitled Doing Less with Less: how shortfalls in budget, staffing and in-house expertise are hampering the effectiveness of MOE and MNR, which highlighted some of the same issues the O.F.A.H. had been fighting for years, such as chronic underfunding of the MNR’s fish and wildlife program. Copies of the Commissioner’s reports and publications are available at www.eco.on.ca.
With over 100,000 members, subscribers and supporters, and 670 member clubs, the O.F.A.H. is the province’s largest nonprofit, fish and wildlife conservation-based organization, and the VOICE of anglers and hunters. For more information, visit www.ofah.org.
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Contact
Lezlie Goodwin
Manager of Communications
705-748-6324 Ext. 270
705-760-5537 (cell) |
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