Canada's Environmental Protection -- going, going, gone!

Canada's Environmental Protection -- going, going, gone!

Postby Oscar » Wed Mar 21, 2012 6:57 pm

Canadian Environmental Assessment -- going, going, gone

----- Original Message -----
From: "Janet M Eaton" <jmeaton@ns.sympatico.ca>
Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2012 6:32 PM
Subject: Canadian Environmental Assessment -- going, going, gone [Elizabeth May ] and Fisheries Act threatened too !!

EXCERPT: First they weakened it in the 2010 Omnibus Budget Bill, forcing through taking energy projects out of EA and weakening comprehensive study. Then they cut CEAA´s budget by 40%. This week, the House Committee for the Environment issued a pre-ordained set of recommendations to further destroy environmental review.....

I fear that the sweeping changes - removing CEAA jurisdiction from any province with "equivalent" EA, removing the requirement to consider alternatives, ordering fixed time lines for reviews, giving the Minister increased powers, "streamlining" First Nations consultations - all point toward more nails in CEAA´s coffin.

After 35 years of working on environmental assessment, I am watching the current government weaken the process to less than we had in 1977. No government has a mandate to un-do environmental law. No government has a mandate to destroy our natural world. -- Elizabeth May

- - - -

A Leaked Document Reveals Plan to Gut Habitat Protection in Fisheries Act

[ https://fonv.ca/media/pdfs/Press_Releas ... 11__2_.pdf ]

EXCERPT: Otto E. Langer , fishery biologist and aquatic ecologist who has worked for the DFO and DOE, issued a press release revealing that documents were leaked to him by insiders. He stated:

"The existing effective and essential piece of legislation is to be changed to apparently just protect fish - something that the Act already does. The lack of mention of ‘habitat’ in the proposed draft law and the number of subjective and ambiguous words inserted into this major amendment will make any enforcement of this new law very difficult. For instance what is a fish of economic, cultural or ecological value? If it has no economic value, can it now be needlessly destroyed? This newly drafted provision is not intended to protect fish habitat in any manner whatsoever. To support the habitat provisions in the Act, in 1986 DFO developed the National Habitat Policy with it’s central theme of ‘no net loss’ and it was once heralded as one of Canada’s first policies promoting sustainable development. Will that now also be withdrawn? "

- - - - -

Scientists are calling on the Harper government to scrap plans to weaken the federal Fisheries Act, saying it will "severely impair" Canada's ability to protect biodiversity and species at risk.

The group, representing 1,000 ecologists and evolutionary biologists across Canada, joins a growing chorus calling on the federal government to abandon plans to weaken the Fisheries Act.

- - - - - -

Scientists speak out against proposed Fisheries Act changes (Apologies: LINK not working - unable to find article on Internet
- Nov. 8, 2019)

[ http://www.canada.com/news/Scientists+s ... story.html ]

By Margaret Munro, Postmedia News March 19, 2012

======================

Canadian Environmental Assessment -- going, going, gone

[ https://www.facebook.com/notes/elizabet ... 6486023739 ]


by Elizabeth May on Friday, March 16, 2012 at 12:09am ·

Confession: I am a pack rat who rarely throws out files. Last night I found the environmental assessment from the first EA process in which I participated. The Wreck Cove Hydroelectric Project EA was mailed to me on April 28, 1977. So that makes 35 years experience in environmental assessment.

Back then Environmental Assessment was under a Guidelines Order of the Privy Council, called the Environmental Assessment Review Process. Just how binding this cabinet order was remained an open question until a Federal court case on the Rafferty-Alameda Dams decision. Back in 1988 I had resigned on principle when my boss, the environment minister, signed the permits for the dams, without any environmental review. This caused the landmark Federal Court ruling.

Before my resignation, we had already been working on getting clear and effective environmental assessment law passed. As the Senior Policy Advisor to the Minister, I had steered the white paper through the Privy Council Office to get permission to draft what became the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act.

I have watched the painstaking process of bringing Canada into the 20th century of environmental law (that´s right, I meant 20th century). CEAA was never the world´s best EA law. It has been riddled with concessions to industry from the get-go.

It is a tool of planning to start an EA as soon as possible in the process. Tens of thousands of Canadian projects have been reviewed. The majority have seen improvements in the process. 99% proceed to be built, but many have modifications to reduce the environmental impact.

But the Harper Conservatives have turned it into a whipping boy for delay. Delay? It is an outrage that our limited, cautious approach to EA, SO much weaker than the law in the US, is too much for Harper.

First they weakened it in the 2010 Omnibus Budget Bill, forcing through taking energy projects out of EA and weakening comprehensive study. Then they cut CEAA´s budget by 40%.

This week, the House Committee for the Environment issued a pre-ordained set of recommendations to further destroy environmental review. Under CEAA every 5 years, there is a mandatory review of the Act. In 2000, the review took over a year. Hearings were held across the country. The process ran from January 2000 to March 2001. This time, the committee pulled the plug after hearing witnesses for nine days. That´s right -- the previous government studied the law for 15 months. The conservatives didn´t give it 15 days. Many witnesses, who had been informed they would be heard, were turned away. I thought at the time that PMO must have told the Conservatives who control the committee to deliver ASAP a report to gut the process. And they did.

I fear that the sweeping changes - removing CEAA jurisdiction from any province with "equivalent" EA, removing the requirement to consider alternatives, ordering fixed time lines for reviews, giving the Minister increased powers, "streamlining" First Nations consultations - all point toward more nails in CEAA´s coffin.

After 35 years of working on environmental assessment, I am watching the current government weaken the process to less than we had in 1977. No government had a mandate to un-do environmental law. No government has a mandate to destroy our natural world.
Last edited by Oscar on Mon Jun 18, 2012 8:57 am, edited 1 time in total.
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CANADA - FOSSIL OF THE DAY AWARD . . . again!

Postby Oscar » Mon Jun 18, 2012 8:56 am

CANADA COMES OUT OF FOSSIL RETIREMENT TO TAKE HOME A SURPRISE SECOND RIO FOSSIL - RECOGNIZED FOR GUTTING THE TEXT IN RIO AND ROLLING BACK ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATIONS AT HOME

[ http://www.climatenetwork.org/press-rel ... gnized-gut ]

June 15 2012 • 14:50 by Secretariat

Canada was awarded the second ever Rio Fossil of the Day today in a surprise move that brought them out of Fossil of the Day retirement with a real bang. The combined impact of their moves to delete and undermine many key pieces of the Rio texts, while pushing through a budget bill that guts environmental and climate policies at home, has earned them a top spot once again.

Today’s Rio Fossil was chosen through a vote by representatives of hundreds of global NGOs and youth based on Canada’s opposition to funding for a Green Economy, their obstruction of key initiatives to protect oceans and sustainable fisheries, their constant watering down of strong commitments on the phase out of Fossil Fuel Subsidies, and their request to remove the recognition of Common But Differentiated Responsibility in the Rio text.

The Fossil presentation text read as follows:

This evening’s recipient of the Rio Fossil may come as a surprise to some of you. That’s because at the UNFCCC negotiations in Durban last December, the international community gave Canada a lifetime achievement award, vowing never again to waste a fossil on a country that has made itself irrelevant when it comes to combating climate change.

But just when we think Canada has hit the bottom of the barrel, they always seem to find more bitumen – so to speak – moving from conventional forms of obstruction to dirtier, darker and more intensive forms. Yesterday Canadian negotiators continued weakening the language around fossil fuel subsidies along with oceans and fisheries, coming out in favour of continuing billions in handouts to big polluters and against protecting the high seas, the low seas, and any other seas. They also hit the delete button on green economy funding and stayed true to form calling for removal the principle of common but differentiated responsibility…sorry – what they consider to be “guilt payments” to the global south…Not content just being a perpetual thorn in the side of progress here in Rio, the Government surprised us all by flipping the proverbial bird to nature. They turned back the clock on decades of environmental regulations, protections, review processes, most things related to protecting the climate, and generally anything green and or nature-related by pushing through a 400 page budget bill that guts Canada’s environmental review and regulatory processes.

For coming out of retirement with a bigger bang than any of us could have imagined, CANADA this FOSSIL is truly for you…you have earned it!!

The Rio Fossil was presented at a mock award ceremony at the RioCentro space where Canada “cut out”
environmental protections. This Fossil of the Day is another in a long history of Fossil Awards for Canada, the all-time champion who has taken home more fossils at United Nations climate talks than any other nation.

“At home and here in Rio, Canada has really earned this Fossil award for undermining a just and sustainable future,” said Amara Possian, a young woman from Canada who accepted the award. “Canada had to go pretty far to get back on this list, and they’ve managed to do it by fighting against the bare minimum of commitments, like ending $1.4 billion in handouts to the fossil fuel industry.”

The Rio Fossil Awards will be presented daily throughout the negotiations highlighting the country or countries
who do the least to support progress (or the most to block it) on issues relevant to climate change, such as energy, forests, and the green economy.

Related Event: Rio+20 UN Sustainable Development Conference
Tags: Rio+20, Canada, Common But Differentiated Responsibility, fossil fuel subsidies, Fossil of the Day, green economy, Rio+20, Canada
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Re: Canada's Environmental Protection -- going, going, gone!

Postby Oscar » Thu Oct 06, 2016 4:08 pm

ACTION ALERT: SIGN PETITION: Every Lake, Every River + VIDEO

[ http://canadians.org/EveryLakeEveryRiver ]

Sign the petition Support the campaign Share

Restore the Navigable Waters Protection Act

97 lakes, 62 rivers and 3 oceans.

This is the number of lakes, rivers and waterways that are protected under the Navigation Protection Act right now.

Before the former Harper Government gutted freshwater protections, the law was called the Navigable Waters Protection Act and it protected every lake and every river. It was the pipeline industry that drove these changes. And now they are fighting to keep them off.

The Trudeau government has announced a review of environmental and freshwater laws. Big Oil doesn’t want the current laws to change. Yet pipelines, mining, fracking, climate change and other risks are threatening clean water in municipalities and Indigenous communities. 99% of the lakes and rivers are no longer protected and pipelines are exempt from federal scrutiny under the Act. But every lake and every river must be protected.

Here are 3 things you can do to call on your Member of Parliament to stand up to Big Oil and restore and strengthen the Navigable Waters Protection Act:

• Sign this petition to Prime Minister Trudeau to restore and enhance freshwater protections

[ https://secure.canadians.org/ea-action/ ... n.id=52987 ]

• SOS: Send a message in a bottle to your Member of Parliament
[ http://canadians.org/everylake-sos ]

• Support the Council’s water campaign
[ https://secure.canadians.org/ea-action/ ... n.id=55037 ]

- - - -


How to protect water through the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act Planning Environmental Assessment
[ http://canadians.org/blog/protect-water-part-4 ]

• Part 1 – CEAA Review Background - October 3, 2016
[ http://canadians.org/blog/protect-water-part-1 ]

• Part 2 – Environmental Assessment in Context - October 4, 2016
[ http://canadians.org/blog/protect-water-part-2 ]

• Part 3 – Overarching Indigenous Considerations - October 3, 2016

[http://canadians.org/blog/protect-water-part-3 ]

• Part 4 – Planning Environmental Assessment - October 5, 2016
[ http://canadians.org/blog/protect-water-part-4 ]

Read more about how to protect every lake and every river!
[ http://canadians.org/EveryLakeEveryRiver ]


Emma Lui
Water campaigner for the Council of Canadians.
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