Photo from The Picton Gazette
The Council of Canadians Quinte chapter has delivered our new water report along with jars of water to the office of Bay of Quinte Liberal MP Neil Ellis.
The Picton Gazette reports, “On Monday, members of the Quinte chapter of the Council of Canadians visited MP Neil Hill’s office at the Edward Building to deliver the organization’s new report Every Lake, Every River: Restoring the Navigable Waters Protection Act and bottles of water from local waterways. The report details Canada’s growing water crisis and the urgency of protecting water sources.”
The article adds, “The Council of Canadians is asking Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to restore protected status for lakes and rivers after the previous government’s Bill C-45 removed protection from 99 per cent of Canadian waterways. The group also called on the government to reinstate scrutiny of large energy projects under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, consult with Indigenous to ensure treaty rights are respected, and to work within the framework of the United Nations recognized human right to water and sanitation.”
During the October 2015 federal election, the Liberals criticized the Harper government’s “elimination of the Navigable Waters Protection Act” and promised to “review these changes, restore lost protections, and incorporate more modern safeguards”. Now Transport minister Marc Garneau says, “Some of the changes that were made we may end up saying they’re reasonable, but some of them we definitely will change.” This equivocation may be because, as The Globe and Mail reports, “The Liberal government is feeling pressure from industry over a campaign pledge to restore regulations surrounding project permits and environmental assessments.”
To find out more about our “SOS: Send a message in a bottle to your Member of Parliament!” action alert, please click here.
It’s part of our Every Lake, Every River campaign that says the protections that were cut by the Harper government must not only be fully and immediately restored by the Trudeau government, they must also be enhanced.
To sign our Every Lake, Every River petition, please click here.
#EveryLakeEveryRiver
