The federal government has just announced “a comprehensive review of federal environmental and regulatory processes”.
During the last federal election, the Liberals stated, “Stephen Harper’s changes to the Fisheries Act, and his elimination of the Navigable Waters Protection Act, have weakened environmental protections. We will review these changes, restore lost protections, and incorporate more modern safeguards. …We will modernize the National Energy Board, ensuring that its composition reflects regional views and has sufficient expertise in fields like environmental science, community development, and Indigenous traditional knowledge.”
We welcome today’s announcement which highlights the government’s intention to “restoring lost protections and introducing modern safeguards to the Fisheries Act and the Navigation Protection Act”.
The Canadian Press reports, “The federal government is slowly gearing up for an across-the-board review of environmental assessments, the National Energy Board and protections for fisheries and navigable waters. …The government is proposing that two committees study fisheries protection and navigable waters, which were significantly reduced in a Conservative omnibus budget bill four years ago. …The government has not yet announced who will sit on either panel, and as for those committee studies, the Commons fisheries and transport committees won’t begin deliberations on any possible reviews until they reconvene sometime after the House resumes sitting on Sept. 19.”
The government has now posted two online surveys.
The first questionnaire relates to generally informing “the Government’s review of environmental and regulatory processes”. The one question specifically on the Navigable Waters Protection Act only states, “The intent of the Navigation Protection Act is, and has always been, to protect the public right of navigation. The recent amendments to the Act concentrated its application on 162 of Canada’s busiest commercial and recreation-related navigable waterways. How were you impacted by the changes made in 2012 to the Navigation Protection Act, and what improvements, if any, would you like to see considered?” You can access that questionnaire here (with August 31 the deadline for responding to this survey).
The second comment form asks for “comments on the proposed Expert Panel’s draft Terms of Reference” While focused on the mandate of the Minister of the Environment and Climate Change, it also notes the “complementary mandate” of the “Minister of Transport [to]review changes to the Navigable Waters Protection Act, restore lost protections and incorporate modern safeguards.” The deadline for this feedback is July 20 and the information to submit comments can be found here.
Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow has previously highlighted, “The Harper government killed the Navigable Waters Protection Act, stripping protections from 99 per cent of lakes and rivers in Canada. Major pipelines and inter-provincial power lines now have the green light to cross over and under more than 31,000 lakes and 2.25 million rivers without federal scrutiny.”
The Globe and Mail recently reported, “The Liberal government is feeling pressure from industry over a campaign pledge to restore regulations surrounding project permits and environmental assessments after a series of changes by the Conservative government in 2012. The Trudeau government is planning to launch a consultation on the environmental assessment process, possibly this summer, and lobby groups are anticipating possible changes such as the relisting of specific rivers and navigable waters that the Harper government had removed from regulations.”
The Council of Canadians intends to participate in this federal consultation process and ensure the relisting of all rivers and waterways.
