Main
Save Canada's Environment Laws
The Conservative government is committed to gutting the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act (CEAA). This is possibly Canada’s most important environmental legislation because it often requires environmental impact studies to be prepared and considered in public hearings before projects such as tar sands mines, oil and gas pipelines and nuclear power plants are built. The law has been steadily improving over the last 20 years through court rulings and government changes to regulations. It is a major part of protecting the environment and a tool we rely on to prevent ecological disaster.
Industry, of course, doesn’t like to make the investment of money and time to carefully consider the implication of its plans. It complains of delays and costs even though those delays and costs are often the fault of companies trying to cut corners or avoid scrutiny.
Dating back to the 1990s, federal and provincial governments have signed agreements to harmonize laws and work together on environmental assessments making it easier, quicker and cheaper for industry. This has not been enough for companies like Exxon (the world’s largest oil company). The public strongly supports environmental protection despite the economic times, so the government has devised a strategy of hiding changes to environmental protection by burying its policy in the budget. Protecting the environment then becomes and election issue. Opposition parties would have to force an election to stop the government from making these changes.
Last year the budget implementation legislation amended CEAA as well as the Navigable Waters Protection Act, eliminating thousands of environmental assessments. Last month, Bill C-9 (An Act to implement certain provisions of the budget) was introduced. Buried in the bill are hundreds of unrelated items and measures that further reduce the scope of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act.
The government is proposing to introduce another bill this spring that would give the Minister of Environment discretion to decide on whether any environmental assessment is conducted for any project that is subject to some federal decision.
Collectively these changes fundamentally undermine the progress made on environmental assessment over the last three decades.
Sierra Club Canada along with Ecojustice is asking Canada’s federal opposition parties to make a public commitment to restoring the environmental assessment law changes set out in Bill C-9 at the earliest opportunity.
Latest Posts
Thank you and have a happy holiday!
Submitted by John Bennett on Tue, 2011-12-20 16:03
This is my last blog of the year so I want to begin by sincerely thanking you for being part of the most exciting year of my campaigning career. In 2011 we probably had one of highest participation rates for email campaigns in all of Canada. Again, thank you.
Today I want to tell you about a disturbing pattern emerging in the public dialogue on environmental issues that has the potential to do significant damage to the environmental movement and our ability to positively influence public opinion. Influencing public opinion, after all, is how we have achieved the great change in how the natural environment is viewed and treated, so it’s important to understand what is happening.... Read more »
... Environmentalists sound alarm over Harper gov't stand on pipeline review
Conservation activists are attacking as anti-democratic Ottawa’s concern that the approval process for a controversial pipeline risks being hijacked by foreign interests and “radical groups.”
Hearings have not started on the Northern Gateway, a proposed pipeline that would carry oil from Alberta to the Pacific coast, but a huge number of people have signed up to speak. In recent days the federal government has been making critical noises about how long the process might take and alleging foreign meddling.
“It’s an extraordinary position for a government to stake out in a third-party regulatory review that has not begun yet,” Gerald Butts, president and CEO of WWF Canada said in a phone interview Monday morning. “Just because a lot of people want to talk, it doesn’t mean the process is broken. In fact, a lot of people would say the opposite.”... Read more »
Link to source site:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/conservation-activists-fire-warning... Controversial nuclear shipping plan remains on hold
TORONTO — A controversial plan to ship 16 decommissioned nuclear steam generators across Ontario's Great Lakes and eventually to Sweden for recycling continues to remain on hold, nearly two years after it was first proposed.
This week, Bruce Power, Canada's only private nuclear power operator, said there was no update on what it will do with the school bus-sized generators left over from a refurbishment of its Bruce A nuclear reactor.
"From our perspective, there's really nothing to say on this as the status has not changed," company spokesman John Peevers wrote in an email.
The company has not ruled out the idea of a shipment but would not elaborate on what other alternatives it was also considering.... Read more »
Link to source site:
http://www.canada.com/technology/Controversial+nuclear+shipping+plan+remains+hol... Remarks to the Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development
By John Bennett, November 1, 2011
Mr. Chairman,
I would like to thank the Committee for providing Sierra Club Canada with an opportunity to put some of our views on the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act (CEAA) on the table. I had hoped to present with our volunteer president (who is also an environmental lawyer) but she is in court today and sends her apologies.
I would like to address three issues in my remarks today. There is an unacceptable campaign to marginalize and silence the voices of the environment in Canada. Giving responsibility for environmental assessment of energy projects to the National Energy Board and the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission was just wrong. And finally, I want to talk about the perceived bias in the system.
... Read more »
