A media release issued today by Francis Scarpaleggia, Member of Parliament for Lac-Saint-Louis and Chair of the National Liberal Water Caucus, highlights that he has, “introduced a private member’s bill to prohibit Canada’s lakes from being used as low-cost disposal sites for tailings waste from mining operations.”
“The Montreal West Island M.P. believes it is more urgent than ever to close this (Schedule 2) Fisheries Act loophole given that the recent federal budget weakens the federal environmental assessment process by giving the environment minister the power to exclude projects from having to go through comprehensive reviews of their overall impact on ecosystems—including proposals that envisage using lakes as dumping grounds for mining wastes.”
The ‘Act to amend the Fisheries Act (mining activities)’ has not yet been assigned a number (it would likely be Bill C-559) and should be posted soon at http://www2.parl.gc.ca/HouseBills/billsprivate.aspx?Parl=40&Ses=3&Language=E&Mode=1#C558.
NDP Member of Parliament Peter Stoffer has also put forward C-219 ‘An Act to amend the Fisheries Act (deposit in lakes)’, which is still in first reading. The text of that Bill is at http://www2.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?DocId=4329858&Language=e&Mode=1&File=24.
The Council of Canadians is campaigning to have the Schedule 2 loophole closed. Information and action alerts are at http://canadians.org/water/issues/TIAs/index.html.
