Ms. Lisa MacLeod: My question is to the Minister of the Environment. Residents of Russell township have collected about 1,375 signatures opposed to a new dump in their community, and that's about 10% of the population, in less than a month. Yet, their own MPP has yet to introduce the petitions into the Legislature.

I'm just wondering if the minister will do the right thing and stand up for Russell residents and stop this dump from moving forward?

Hon. John Wilkinson: I find that an interesting proposition. What I can assure you is that at the Ministry of the Environment we ensure that we protect human health and the natural environment. We do that because we look at things when it comes to approvals. There is no request from any proponent in Russell before my ministry.

I understand that there is a proponent, and I've heard this from our excellent member who represents Russell, that a proponent is meeting with the community and sharing with the community what their thoughts are. My understanding, of course, is that this is a municipal issue, because there would be issues of zoning, etc, so there is absolutely nothing in front of our ministry.

Our job at the ministry is to protect human health. We do that by looking at the merits, or lack thereof, of an application or a request. I can't prejudge that if there's no application in front of my ministry, and I would hope that you would share, as I know the member from Russell has been doing, that there is absolutely nothing before our ministry in regard to proposed dump other than what we-

The Speaker (Hon. Steve Peters): Thank you. Supplementary?

Ms. Lisa MacLeod: The residents don't want the dump, plain and simple, and they've outreached to my office, but perhaps the real reason the Liberal government won't table these petitions and won't answer the question is because of yesterday's damning report by the auditor, proving this government a total failure in waste diversion.

Now, Ontario PC candidate Marilissa Gosselin has been a very big supporter of the organization. She's been a leading advocate to stop this dump because she knows, like Russell families, that the McGuinty Liberals can't meet their waste diversion commitments, and that's the reason that they're expanding dumps in Carp and that's why they're building dumps in Russell.

Yesterday's auditor confirmed that, despite their promise to divert 60% of waste, they're doing less than 12% in the IC&I. Given the McGuinty Liberals abject failure to divert waste from dumps, why should residents of Russell and Carp have to-

The Speaker (Hon. Steve Peters): Thank you. Minister?

Hon. John Wilkinson: I find that interesting. When we took government, people used to take used tires and just dump them in a ditch. That's illegal in the province of Ontario. We have a program to make sure that every tire is disposed of.

There used to be hazardous waste that used to go into our landfills. That was the legacy of the other government. We put in programs to make sure that waste electronics and hazardous material is staying out of it.

There was a time when people would take organics and they would actually put it in the garbage. Now some 850,000 tons, last year alone, was diverted so it could be composted. That's the right thing for the environment.

When it comes to the blue box, a million tons of materials, just last year alone, was diverted from our landfills.

People in Ontario are doing the right thing. Where we need work is when it comes to the industrial commercial, industrial and institutional sector. We want to thank the auditor for his recommendations. We think that they're very thoughtful. We look forward to making sure that we protect the environment.