TORONTO - Funding cuts spanning 15 years have left Ontario vulnerable to a catastrophe similar to the Walkerton tainted water tragedy that claimed seven lives and sickened thousands in 2000, the province's environmental watchdog warned Tuesday.

The provincial ministries responsible for the environment "have been allowed to atrophy and deteriorate" to the point where there isn't enough qualified staff to regularly inspect facilities that spew pollutants into the air and water, said Environmental Commissioner Gord Miller.

In a report released Tuesday, Miller said both the Ministry of the Environment and Ministry of Natural Resources are failing to ensure even the most "basic public service" - that raw or inadequately treated sewage doesn't pollute Ontario's water.

The Environment Ministry also can't keep up with the applications for permits that regulate what companies can discharge into the environment while other companies are operating with ancient permits that don't hold them to current standards, Miller said.

"Our present course puts our ecosystems, our biodiversity, our health and parts of our economy at serious risk of deterioration and catastrophic events," Miller told a press conference in Sudbury, Ont., after releasing his report entitled "Doing Less with Less."

While opposition parties said the report shows the province hasn't learned anything from the Walkerton tragedy - which saw seven people die and thousands fall ill when the southern Ontario town's water supply became contaminated with E. coli in May 2000 - Miller said the environment ministry has since bolstered drinking water protection.

Since the ministry's overall funding has been cut, Miller said those improvements seem to have come at the expense of other programs.

"Where did that money come from?" Miller said. "That is where the real problems exist. They've actually constrained the rest of the duties and activities of the Ministry of the Environment even more."

While both ministries have seen their responsibilities increase since the early nineties, Miller said their budgets have been slashed under New Democrat, Conservative and Liberal governments.

Funding in Ontario now falls well behind provinces like British Columbia and Alberta, he noted. The Ontario environment ministry now spends $22 per capita, down from $39 in 1992 while spending at the natural resources ministry has fallen from $72 per capita in 1992 to $49 last year.

It's time the province saw the connection between people's health and environmental inspection, Miller added.

"Our emergency wards clog with children having asthma attacks," said Miller, adding the government must rebuild both ministries from the ground up and boost their budgets.

"But the solution is not more emergency wards - it includes giving the Ministry of the Environment the resources to make the air cleaner."

Environment Minister Laurel Broten said her ministry has suffered serious cutbacks over the last 15 years and is taking steps to rebuild. For example, she said the ministry is putting $1.5 million into speeding up permits and address the backlog highlighted by Miller.

"We are making up for some very dark times. Those cuts cannot be made up overnight," Broten said, adding her ministry's operating budget has increased 22 per cent since 2003. "We have taken really drastic steps. Is there more to do? Absolutely."

Opposition Leader John Tory said the Liberals have had four years to fix the situation as they promised in the last election. If his Conservatives are elected in October, Tory said he will boost the budgets of both ministries.

"We've got to do better," he said.

New Democrat Peter Tabuns said all parties may have been blamed in Miller's report but the Liberals are the ones in power. They have to fix this chronic underfunding and heed the lessons of Walkerton, he said.

"We didn't learn the essence of the Walkerton lesson, which is that environmental degradation has human health impacts," said Tabuns, former director of Greenpeace. "We will pay in our health and in our lives for not investing properly in environmental protection."