Stop the Harper Government Reducing Environmental Regulations

A message has recently been sent to all members of Post-Carbon Toronto which outlines what the Harper government is doing to remove environmental controls - if you like what BP has done to the Gulf of Mexico, you'll love what is in store for the Beaufort Sea. See below:

On March 29th, the Harper government submitted a 904-page “budget” bill, which, as a ‘money’ bill, is classed as a confidence motion – voting it down automatically triggers an election. The Conservatives grouped together a number of unrelated measures in this omnibus “budget” bill which they knew they could never get through Parliament as stand-alone legislation. With this package, they have in effect dared the Opposition to accept their changes, or vote the legislation down and plunge the country into an election.

This ‘omnibus’ parts of this “budget” bill includes, with its financial clauses, changes to pensions and Canada Post, advances privatization of Atomic Energy of Canada, and most important, gives the federal Minister of the Environment “the power to establish the scope of any project that involves an environmental assessment,” as well as granting the Minister the “legal authority to decide that an environmental assessment is not required for federally funded infrastructure projects.”

We believe multinational oil companies are major supporters of the legislative changes to the environmental regulations; and we know BP, Exxon-Mobil, and Chevron already have drilling leases in the Beaufort Sea, but are waiting for government authorization to proceed. This legislation would make it possible for them to begin drilling in the Arctic based on the approval of one politician, and give citizen’s groups no way to oppose them!

The NDP and the Bloc want to counter this Conservative manoeuvre by ‘dismantling’ Bill C-9 in committee (where the opposition parties have a majority) and sever the budgetary provisions from the other measures. They would create free standing bills on the items Harper has attached to the legislation – in effect, one bill goes in, and 6 bills come out. This would be a compromise - vote to pass the budgetary measures, while defeating the bills on the environment, and giving consideration to the other measures. A ‘money’ bill goes in, and that ‘money’ bill (albeit much slimmer) comes out and is passed - there is no defeat of a confidence motion, and so no election.

The problem is the Liberals will not cooperate; they have announced they intend to support the 904 page bill as is, and the NDP and the Bloc by themselves cannot stop Harper.

Bearing in mind the ongoing oil catastrophe in the Gulf, we have an opportunity and a responsibility to ensure the same situation doesn’t occur in northern Canadian waters. Residents of Toronto who are upset over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill should invest their energies lobbying MPs in Toronto, to let the MPs know that they support the NDP/Bloc position, expect a united Opposition and reject cooperation with Harper and the Conservative environmental policies.

We ask that all concerned citizens to write, email, phone or visit their MPs to demand that the Conservative omnibus budget bill be disassembled!