John Collins on Northern Pulp and why a federal assessment is paramount – Nova Scotia Advocate
I tried to get help a few years ago when AIS was going to receive the fracking wastewater, process it and dump it into the Minas Basin. I was in contact with our MP, Scott Armstrong, at the time. He sent me an email and said, “Although the federal government develops the laws governing pollution, it is the province that administers the various Environmental Acts.”
PEI premier Wade MacLauchlan tried to get federal support for an environmental assessment of Northern Pulp. Martin said federal officials from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and Environment and Climate Change Canada told her last year that Ottawa had no intention of stepping in.
Likewise, Lenora Zann tried to get federal support for the Alton Gas project. Last December, a spokeswoman for the federal Environment Department, Veronica Petro, said the department could not speculate about the compliance of a facility not yet in operation. Zann said she wasn’t surprised to learn that federal officials have had little to say.
An article I posted on my website in May, 2015 titled ‘Nova Scotia Ignoring Environmental Protection’ shows Krystyn Tully of EcoWatch explain it this way:
“For the last thirty years, Canada was a rule-of-law kind of country. Our environmental laws spelled out what you can’t do (for example, pollute or block a river). They spelled out how decisions had to be made (for example, major projects were reviewed by independent panels, with input from qualified experts). Those who wanted to develop or dump on the water had to prove to a decision-maker that their actions would not harm other people’s abilities to safely swim, drink or fish those same waters. With a few notable exceptions, the federal rules were generally the same across Canada.
"This is no longer true. When yet another omnibus budget bill passed through Parliament this week, it ushered in a new era in Canadian history. The Navigable Waters Protection Act no longer protects water. The Fisheries Act no longer protects fish. The Environmental Assessment Act no longer requires environmental assessments be done before important decisions are made. If you’re looking at federal environmental laws and policies to protect Canada’s environment, you’re a dinosaur. A throwback. A relic of the 20th century.
“No need to worry,” the federal government says, “the provinces will protect you now.”
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It’s starting to look like we won’t get federal support for any environmental issues in Nova Scotia. Margaret Miller and maybe the rest of Stephen McNeil’s Liberal party, are all we have to work with. We need to find a way to work with them to have these issues addressed and handled better.