Environment, natives take hit

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Under changes proposed in the Harper government�s omnibus budget bill, there will be far fewer environmental assessments and less than one per cent of the country�s waterways will be covered under the Navigable Waters Protection Act.

OTTAWA -- Government calls it making way for business. Outraged foes call it the slicing and dicing of environmental protection and any remaining trust between government and aboriginal peoples.

Over several months of omnibus bills, amendments, regulations and tinkering with long-standing conventions, Ottawa has undertaken a series of adjustments that add up to undeniably profound changes in environmental and aboriginal policy.

Bill C-45, the 457-page omnibus budget bill tabled last week in the House of Commons, is the latest instalment in what may seem like evolutionary changes. They may turn out to be revolutionary instead.

"It is all about jobs, investment and opportunity. It is all about creating economic growth so Canadians can get back into the workforce and be able to provide for themselves and their families," Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird told the House on Friday.

Canadian business leaders are saying little, but they are quietly content with these changes, officials with several major business groups told The Canadian Press.

Aboriginal groups and environmentalists, however, say they are deeply disturbed by the new directions and the stealthy way those directions were undertaken.

"When our people see no movement from the government to work with us, when they see backsliding, undermining and continuing threats and pressures on an already burdened population, the flames only grow stronger," Shawn Atleo, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, said last week.

"Our people will not stand for it. Rightly so, there is growing anger and frustration."

There has been no big announcement or unveiling of a bold new strategy. Rather, profound changes have come cloaked in dense bureaucratese that lawyers from all vantage points are still puzzling over.

"Essentially, what the federal government has done is slice and dice environmental law to the point where they are not protecting water or air," said Jessica Clogg, executive director of West Coast Environmental Law.

On the environment front, reform first came in the spring omnibus budget bill that, among other things, replaced the Environmental Assessment Act, significantly modified the Fisheries Act, tinkered with the Species At Risk Act, and gave ministers more approval power over energy and pipeline projects.

Natural-resource industries were delighted with the changes and did not lobby for anything further, notes NDP environment critic Megan Leslie.

"They were pleased as punch. They didn't ask for anything else."

But the government went further anyway. In the second omnibus budget bill tabled last week, there was more tinkering with the Fisheries Act and a major revamping of the Navigable Waters Protection Act. Indeed, the word "waters" will be dropped when the bill passes, making it the navigation protection act.

The end result? There will be dramatically fewer environmental assessments, focused only on major projects. Provinces will handle the assessments if they are able. Only fish of commercial importance will be protected.

Pipelines will be exempt from the navigation protection act and the environmental assessments that law has often triggered. Only three oceans, 97 lakes and 62 rivers will be covered by the new act -- less than one per cent of Canada's waterways.

But if mining companies are tempted to pump water out of any of those waterways to use for dumping tailings, they will no longer be allowed to do so.

"The net effect is that Canada's environment is less protected by the federal government than it ever has been before. They are, piece by piece, getting out of the business," said Will Amos, director of the Ecojustice environmental law clinic at the University of Ottawa.

The goal, government argues, is to maintain environmental protection and stiffen enforcement, but reduce overlap and regulatory uncertainty so safe resource development can go ahead without unnecessary delay. Billions of dollars in investment will be unlocked.

Environment Minister Peter Kent and Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan were not immediately available for comment.

The changes give the pipeline industry exactly what it hoped for: "more focus, more certainty, more transparency," says Brenda Kenny, president and CEO of the Canadian Energy Pipeline Association.

"That is what has been accomplished."

-- The Canadian Press

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition October 22, 2012 A5