TORONTO — Ontario only spends $4 million annually to fight invasive species despite the $3.6 billion economic impact they create, the province's auditor general said in her annual report.
Bonnie Lysyk said Ontario does not track dozens of invasive species in the province and conservation officers have never laid a charge under the 2015 act that sets rules to prevent and control the spread of those species.
"The Natural Resources Ministry has only one staff member regularly performing risk assessment work, contributing to the delays in regulating invasive species," she said. The auditor general also discovered six of the invasive species -- creeping jenny, goutweed, Norway maple, periwinkle, spearmint and winter creeper -- can be bought in home and garden centres throughout the province."The ministry’s monitoring programs mainly rely on incidental observations instead of a regular and risk-based approach to invasive species surveillance," Lysyk wrote.
The province has since told the auditor general it is working with the CFIA on the invasive insect, which has been found in Fort Erie, Ont.
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