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Save Canada’s Environmental Laws - Letter to SenateJune 1, 2010 Re: Save Canada's environmental laws - do not accept the gutting of environmental assessment through the budget bill Honourable Senators: We represent fourteen conservation and community organizations working at the national level and in regions across Canada, who are concerned about the future of environmental assessment. We are writing to request that, as members Canada's Parliament soon to review Budget Bill C-9, the Jobs and Economic Growth Act, you stand firm to defend Parliamentary tradition by refusing to pass the Budget as it stands, with non-budgetary measures buried inside it. If the Bill is approved at third reading by the Commons in its current form - merely in order to avoid an election and in spite of the objections of all opposition parties representing a majority in that House - we ask that you use your unique position within our system to defend Parliament's prerogative and the public's right to a full, proper, and separate legislative consideration of the provisions aimed at weakening environmental assessment contained in the Bill. We ask that the Senate sever these - parts 19 and 20 - from the Bill. The provisions in parts 19 and 20 are clearly aimed at gutting the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act ("CEAA"), which requires environmental assessments for development projects such as tar sands mines, oil and gas pipelines and nuclear power plants. These provisions have nothing whatsoever to do with the Budget, and have no business being there. The changes include:
CEAA and its regulations were developed only after years of public and stakeholder review, including review by the Environment Minister's own multi-stakeholder Regulatory Advisory Committee. Any one of these changes, proposed to be made without any public or stakeholder consultation, would represent a significant setback for sustainability and environmental protection. Combined together, they set environmental assessment practice back many years at just the time when Canadians are more conscious than ever about the need for rigorous environmental protection. By burying these significant changes to environmental assessment deep within a towering, 900-page budget bill, the government has deliberately sought to bypass the will of Parliament, which set out a legal requirement for a comprehensive seven-year review of CEAA that is slated to begin by June 2010. Hiding these significant changes from the serious Parliamentary and public scrutiny they require is harmful to the principles of good and transparent government, and every member of Parliament - whether in the Senate or in the other chamber - should be prepared to stop this end-run around democratic process. It happened in last year's budget with amendments to CEAA and the Navigable Waters Protection Act, eliminating thousands of assessments aimed at ensuring development is sustainable. You should not permit it to happen again. We would be pleased to meet with you or your staff to discuss our request for you to help protect Canada's environment by stopping Canada's environmental assessment law from being undermined. The government's proposal, if passed by the Commons, is one that clearly requires the sober second thought that your chamber is constitutionally intended and entitled to carry out. Sincerely Josh Paterson, Staff Lawyer West Coast Environmental Law Vancouver, British Columbia Jamie Kneen, Co-Manager Brian Free, President Canadian Society of Environmental Biologist Carolyn Campbell, Conservation Specialist Roberta Frampton Benefiel, Vice-President John Sinclair Peter Karwacki, President J. Denys Bourque, R. P. F. Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition Jennifer Rice Pat Moss, Friends of Wild Salmon Dieter Wagner, Douglas Channel Watch Julia Hill, North West Watch Kindly direct responses care of: Josh Paterson Staff Lawyer West Coast Environmental Law 200-2006 W 10th Av Vancouver BC V6J 2B3 tel: 604-684-7378 fax: 604-684-1312 Email: jpaterson@wcel.org cc: Prime Minister | ||
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