March 7, 2008
News release
Feds failing to protect Canada's Environment Commissioner highlights inadequate investment
Ottawa – Chronic underfunding and a legacy of program cuts at Environment Canada have come home to roost.
Canada's Environment Commissioner Ron Thompson released a scathing assessment yesterday of this and a succession of previous government's irresponsible handling of the environment file.
The 2008 Status Report of the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development noted the failure of the government to live up to international environmental commitments and its conspicuous failure to comply with its own regulations and rules, which require that all new government programs and policies be vetted with a view to assessing their environmental impact.
The report exposes the government's hypocrisy, noting that while it frequently asserts the critical importance to our social, economic and environmental well-being of protecting bio diversity, it does little in the face of escalating habitat loss and environmental degradation – now the biggest threats to plants and animals in Canada.
“The bottom line,” says John Gordon, National President of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, “is that Environment Canada has not allocated sufficient human or financial resources to effectively manage Canada's protected areas.”
As a result, Environment Canada is failing to protect the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River basin and failing to enforce its regulations under the Canada Wildlife Act or the Migratory Birds Convention Act as they pertain to wildlife areas and bird sanctuaries.
The Public Service Alliance of Canada is on record warning Environment Minister John Baird about the harmful and unacceptable effects of program cuts and underfunding at Environment Canada.
“Protecting Canada's environment is about more than just climate change,” says Bill Pynn, National President of the Union of Environment Workers. “Environment Canada is seriously underfunded and it is unreasonable to expect the department to provide the total package of environmental protections that the public has a right to expect with a budget that is inadequate.”
For information:
Denis Boivin, PSAC Communications, 613-222-4617 (cell)
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Date Modified : 2008/11/18
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