 Environment - March 8, 2008 |
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Report blasts successive government’s failure to address ecological initiatives
Feds falling short on environment |
By Kevin Ma
Staff Writer
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The federal government is all talk and little walk when it comes to the environment, according to the federal environment commissioner, and is now decades behind on many major ecological initiatives.
Federal Environment Commissioner Ron Thompson released the 2008 status report on the environment this week. The report examines progress in 14 previously audited areas, including pesticides and ecosystem protection, and found satisfactory progress in just five.
Successive federal governments have made a pile of commitments over the last ten years and haven’t met them, said Thompson, speaking from Ottawa. "For these areas there’s been far too much talk and far too little action." He said he hoped his report would help Parliament hold the government’s feet to the fire and get these stalled initiatives moving.
Toxins and nukes OK
The government has done a decent job of managing toxic chemicals, the report found. In 2002, the commission found that Environment Canada was years behind on its studies of some 69 potentially toxic substances. Now, all but three of those studies are done. Health Canada was criticized for its evaluations of new pesticides, missing its own deadlines by 153 days in some cases. Now, they miss deadlines by just 17 days.
The report also saw progress on nuclear power and contaminated sites. The government tabled a law last year that, if passed, would make sure power companies had enough insurance to cover people harmed in a nuclear accident. It also committed $1.5 billion towards cleaning up some 17,800 sites contaminated by chemicals or fuel — a step up from 2002 when the government had no idea how many contaminated sites it had despite 13 years of work.
The federal government is on the right track in these areas, Thompson said, and got on track because it had a solid plan for action backed by political will and money. "When the government wants to get something done that’s important to it, it can certainly do it and do it well."
Water and wildlife at risk
But the government had fallen decades behind on ecosystem protection, the report found. Environment Canada was responsible for protecting some 150 wildlife areas and bird sanctuaries, for example, yet was so understaffed that some were only inspected once every 10 years. It was also supposed to have plans in place to preserve 228 species at risk by last June, but has finished just 55. Canada also agreed to clean up some 17 sites on the Great Lakes in 1987, but has finished just two of them, leaving the region plagued with closed beaches, algae blooms and tainted fish and game.
One reason for these problems is financial, said Sandra Foss, president of the Federation of Alberta Naturalists. The U.S. spends about $12 a hectare on habitat protection, for example. "In Canada, we spend 19 cents." The report notes that the government has spent about $350 million cleaning up the Great Lakes over the last 15 years, or a fraction of the estimated $3.5 billion needed.
Politics is another reason, said Helene Walsh of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society. Her group recently called on the government to step in to protect Alberta’s woodland caribou. The government has not, she said, likely because it doesn’t want to hold back oil and gas development.
Edmonton-St. Albert MP John Williams defended his government’s record, blaming many of the problems in the report on previous Liberal governments. "When we’d taken over we had a pile of catching up to do." His government has already invested some $225 million into the Nature Conservancy of Canada, he said as an example, as well as $110 million into species at risk. "We are turning this ship around."
The government fell behind in nine of the 14 areas the report examined due to a lack of political will, Thompson said. "The federal government simply hasn’t exercised the leadership we think it should have." The government needed to work closer with local and provincial governments to get stalled projects like the Great Lakes cleanup moving again, he said.
The report is available at http://www.oag-bvg.gc.ca. |
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