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TORONTO — Ontario’s governing Liberals have “snuck in” changes that are dismantling environmental protections and could have “disastrous results” for the province, environmental commissioner Gord Miller said Thursday.

Changes in last year’s budget gives the government the power to hand over Crown land — which makes up 87% of the province — to companies from the hands of the Ministry of Natural Resources, he said.

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“Why would they change it to allow the cabinet of Ontario, by regulation, to hand that responsibility over to an independent third party?” Miller said after releasing his annual report.

“It could be anybody. It could be any kind of corporate entity. … There’s a lot of wealth, a lot at stake here.”

It’s “galling” that those major changes, which should be of particular concern to northern Ontario residents, were shielded from public scrutiny, he said. They were in the 2012 budget bill, which is exempt from a requirement for the government to post environmentally significant decisions.