Last week, a year-old letter signed by the associations representing the petroleum, gas and pipeline industry in Canada was exposed. It asked the federal government to modify six critical environmental laws that inconvenienced the signers' industries.
Five of these laws have since been chopped up into omnibus bills C-38 and C-45, which significantly dismantled Canada's environmental protection. The letter was obtained last week by Greenpeace via Access to Information.
Before specifically naming which environmental laws they want changed and getting into the details of those desired changes, the letter characterizes Canada's environmental law as "almost entirely focused on preventing bad things from happening" and puzzlingly attempts to criticizes it for being so:
"We believe that the basic approach embodied in existing legislation is out-dated. At the heart of most existing legislation is a philosophy of prohibiting harm; 'environmental' legislation is almost entirely focused on preventing bad things from happening rather than enabling responsible outcomes. This results in a position of adversarial prohibition, rather than enabling collaborative conservation to achieve agreed common goals."
It is more than troubling that this letter explicitly names the acts the signatories want altered and goes on to specifically spell out the changes they want to our country's environmental safety net. It is more than suspicious that we have now seen most of these changes come to pass in omnibus bills C-38 and C-45.
In their letter, the petroleum, gas and pipeline industry associations identified the National Energy Board Act, Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, Species at Risk Act, Fisheries Act, Migratory Birds Convention Act and the Navigable Waters Protection Act as part of an "out-dated" approach. So far, the migratory birds are the only ones that have since escaped having their federal protection eliminated.
Take a moment to unwind and then brace yourself for the next part of the letter. After identifying the environmental regulation easements that we have now seen put in place, the letter moves on to suggest the federal government rework First Nation's land claims:
"In addition to considering regulatory reform in the context of environmental legislation and regulation, in parallel progress must be made on issues associated with Aboriginal consultation."
As with the environmental protection eliminations, the requested changes to the Indian Act are solely in the interest of the industries that sent the letter, and not in the interest of the communities and peoples affected. Of course the federal government was quick to comply with this request as well, and we are currently seeing the frustration of the people play out across the nation. Driven over the edge, they march and rally now, having already decided to take matters into their own hands. With Idle No More, they are bravely standing in opposition to the very things that should have every Canadian on their feet and expressing outrage.
Never should one industry get to write Canada's environmental law. Never should one industry get to rewrite Canada's treaties. Never should one industry be listened to over the voice of tens of thousands of protesting citizens.
The letter was signed by the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, Canadian Energy Pipeline Association, Canadian Gas Association and the Canadian Petroleum Products Institute. It was surely just one element in a broader conversation of lobbying. Of course we all know that lobbying on this level exists and has its effects.
The scandal here is that the Harper government is blatantly adhering to the interests of one industry -- adhering to the interests of one industry over other industries, adhering to the interests of one industry over the broader interests of all Canadians, and adhering to the interests of one industry over the fundamental protection of our land and waters.
What are we to make of how easy a time these industry lobbyists had at furthering their own interests? It begins to seem outlandish when we compare this to how difficult of a time Canadian citizens have when simply asking their government to pass these kinds of bills openly (with debate and dialogue, and not all lumped together like some mega-omnibus bill).
What are we to make that a letter from an oil, gas and pipeline lobby group and addressed to only the Minister of Environment Canada and the Minister of Natural Resources Canada appears to set in motion deep reforms to the relationship the federal government has with our First Nation peoples?
If we let basic protection of our environments, communities or commitments lapse, then it won't be long before we have to attend the consequences. These will be the kind of consequences without easy remedy. I'll be honest, I write this with the idea that exposing the scandal here could bring more people into action. But what kind of action?
Let this letter help us all understand the mechanics of lobbying -- beyond experiencing its effects on a daily basis. It is positive to see that many Canadians are being encouraged to bypass the limited media coverage of these concerns and go and seek out this information for themselves. Choose one part of these omnibus bills and examine it closely. If you enjoy having healthy streams, rivers and lakes then perhaps start with that aspect.
The Act which previously provided basic protection for our Canadian waters was eliminated and its replacement is called the Navigation Protection Act. Notice first that the word "water" has been removed from the title; that will give you insight into the meat of this Act.
This is a continuation of the Harper government's abandonment of responsibility to protect water and water habitats. This new acts leaves 99.9 per cent of our rivers and 99.7 per cent of our lakes without basic protection.
If you get a big kick out of horrifying dismal catastrophes then you will love this next part: Bridges are mentioned in this new replacement Act but there is no federal governing policy for how pipelines are regulated when they near or cross water. Recall that one of the four signees of the lobby letter was the Canadian Energy Pipeline Association.
Bill C-45 tries to reassure us that "Canadian waters will continue to be protected by Transport Canada's marine safety laws, the Fisheries Act, the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, 2012 and various provincial statutes." But anyone who has been following along will remember that the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act and the Fisheries Act were both gutted in omnibus budget bill C-38 when resource interests were favoured over the health of the environment.
What on Earth are we doing? Or rather, what are we allowing to be done? Nature strives to experience the hospitality of our human world. We cannot let government's failings represent our humanness. We must give mercy and deep appreciation in the form of basic environmental protection.
Follow Yan Roberts on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@yan_piebird
The writer should be informed that he lives in a society where democracy has been usurped by The Corporate State and the wealthy elites.
The Corporate State was already powerful on the day that Mulroney signed NAFTA.
Afterwards, the influence and power of that Corporate State accelerated dramatically and is now labelled as the 1%'ers.
Moreover, the Corporate State and the wealthy elites have bribed and brutalized federal tax codes into providing massive amounts of corporate welfare and tax avoidance scams which greatly accelerated their transnational power.
Now, the high powered law firms, working for The Corporate State, have stuffed all of the Government Laws, Acts and Regulations inside their word processors and simply make their own changes and send them off to their bought-and-paid-for politicians, as was the case with these changes to the environmental acts.
And, by the time the next election rolls around where the population will wipe the Conservatives right off the map, as they did to Mulroney, the Corporate controlled Media will be working hard to make Canadians forget about the Harper sell-out to The Corporate State!
I hope the dedicated people working on this story dig deeper and, if it turns out to be as rancid as it smells (follow the money perhaps) remove him from office and remember for the future that this IS what they do and you can expect more if you vote for them.
I think we would be better off with a PM who pretended the oilsands did not exist and stopped tuning everything to it. How do you deal with the manufacturing collapse in Ontario, the regional employment in the east the loss of the local logging industry in the west?
Why not act like Germany and start mandating new homes have "green" utilities and then support companies that build them locally in areas like Ontario where you have the workers. Why not build that pipeline east and start selling the oil to Eastern Canada instead of trying to sell it to China, why not go after companies that want to sell their products in this country and tell them they need to build plants here if they want to access the market.
Have some freakin ideas, some vison that does not mean selling everything off that has taken generations to build up. Who does he work for because he does not seem to like this country. It is as if he wants to be the PM of Alberta.
running any successful business involves liklihood of failure.
An green church only needs a good story. It doesn't matter if say, Suzuki's ideas lead to no jobs - he will have an explanation for anything . The politics of envy .Work for a government monopoly and you will never fail . There's risk of falure if you can always succeed by proclamation. "we have saved the world " .
after the courts decide on robocalls aka election fraud let's vote Harper CONS out in 2013.
Idle no more
the FN's to foster their own agenda .
The BS about a ''third-world' country is WAY over the top. Canada wil continue to
attract immigrants from the "saintly" environmental countries of Europe and Latin-America.
Our FN leaderchip needs to develop a real approach to the 21's century .
Some connection with the larger world that is not government-mandated .
That means jobs for the young, businesses and products to sell ; sucesses AND
failures. I don't think the current jihadists in INM have any solutions .
Demonize Harper , that'll always work .
As an environmental professional in Alberta, there are many changes that need to be addressed, a lot of them being duplication of paperwork! More paperwork is not going to necesarily protect the environment any better! Most environmental professionals end up spending more hours on paperwork than any actual conservation and reclamation.
The way it is being reported there is now NO oversight or protection of 99%+ of waterways in Canada. This is extremely misleading if not downright lying! There remains various legislation, both provincial and fedral that protect the environment. The fact that you only have to do one 20 year study instead of four does NOT mean there is NO protection.
Don't get me wrong, I am disgusted with the omnibus bills and wrote the PM and my MP prior to each vote. I stand with Idle no More, but there are enough real issues without sensationalizing and making $h1t up!!
A spin that guarantees conflict and provied ample fuel for differing opinions.
Instead of just laying out the facts.
Not to say there isn't cause for concern with the legislation or how closely it follows industrys recommndations,
it was not intended to protect the environment from pipelines, bridges, etc.
When any special interest group lobbies our elected officials it is imperative that our representatives, and the bureaucrats who serve us, that both politicians and bureaucrats adhere to a singular PURPOSE and PRINCIPLES of what "we the people" want for our Government.
If the PURPOSE of Government is to protect and enhance the lives of "ALL" Canadians then any governing Party must not be allowed to grant special access to any special interest group. All requests for policy changes must be made respecting the PURPOSE of Government.
Thoughts?
The government that we have, and by this I am referring to the system not the particular political party involved, has a singular function it would seem, and that is to pander to the dollar. It is striking to me when I find Elizabeth May to have spoke words I have been saying for years, "Political Parties should be abolished". I know this sounds a bit radical, however our current legislature was a direct copy of Britians' Parliamentary system, and originally included the Queen/King as the head of state. As a society, we have outgrown that system and should abandon it. The current parliamentary system sets up an adversarial approach to doing government business as opposed to a cooperative approach. What if every elected member was part of the government? Do we really need a head of state (PM) or could we select a body from the larger elected body to be the head(s) of state for their term. As for term duration I think we should actually limit MP's to only being able to serve two terms. As well, on private members bills, if they try to get it by twice and it fails, their out, lose their seat call a new election for their riding. Abolish lobbying in all forms, important national issues that affect all Canadians should go to referendum. I have a lot of thoughts on this subject.