By Sasha Moedt (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: June 6, 2012
The Conservative government is trying to pass a 452 page bill that has cuts to crucial aspects of social and environmental Canada. Bill C-38 is huge, proposing to make drastic changes to everything from Employment Insurance, Old Age Security and The Fair Wages and Hours of Labour Act. But worse yet is the complete gutting of environmental protection laws.
It’s just crazy. With 753 clauses, the bill is overwhelming and confusing, and the Conservatives are trying to push is through fast. It is entitled “Jobs, Growth, and Long-term Prosperity Act,” and picking through it, you can see the environmental ramifications could be dire if this beast were passed.
The list of cuts will be long and painful. The Kyoto Protocol, making the government responsible for the environmental damage, will be killed. The crucial advisory body, the National Round Table on Environment and Economy will be killed. There will be a considerable narrowing of public engagement in resource review panel hearings, especially for major oil projects, pipelines and mines, because citizens will have to prove they will be affected or that they have relevant information to participate in these hearings. Parks Canada will have staffing cuts. The National Energy Board will be exempted from species at risk protections, and the cabinet will be allowed to override a ‘no’ on the NEB’s decisions on projects that might harm the environment. And on it goes.
An aspect of bill C-38 that has been deeply criticized is the changes made to the Fisheries Act. In the bill, the old framework of protection is taken away, and replaced by a new one, one that could leave out any fish that isn’t of “commercial, recreational or Aboriginal value” – and with the other cutbacks on regulatory boards, even those habitats are at risk.
The Fisheries Act is crucial to the health of Canada’s waterways and fish. Selecting only fish of “value” to protect is a moot point; it’s just a front, the Conservatives pretending they give a rat’s ass about the environment. Long term prosperity?
A basic understanding of any ecosystem will tell us that if this change to the Fisheries Act goes through, the fish that are being “protected” by the Tories will dwindle in population.
Species are directly connected; if a food chain is unbalanced, eventually this will impact the protected fish.
I can’t imagine a Federal scientist would okay this change in the Act. I wouldn’t, and I haven’t completed my lab requirement. But maybe they didn’t approve it, but their disapproval was muzzled. Sounds plausible.
Elizabeth May called Bill C-38 “The Environmental Destruction Act” in her article published in The Tyee condemning the legislation. She’s spot on there. The fact that the Conservatives are even trying to pass this is something to think about. Are they assuming Canadian’s won’t take notice? Are they taking advantage of Canadian apathy? Are we going to be apathetic about a bill that could be so detrimental to the environment? We can no longer sacrifice the environment for short-term economic gain.
So this is what the Conservative majority is trying to do with the power we handed them. Let’s take it away and smack them with it. We can do that, you know. It’s easy to forget under Harper’s lead.
The Conservatives can talk all they like (and they will) but Bill C-38 is the opposite of “Long-term Prosperity.” There is no prosperity if the environment continues to deteriorate, and if this bill goes through, that’s what will happen.
