By Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, Green MP Bruce Hyer

What is an environmental issue? However you define it, Harper is against it.

“Environment” means different things to different people.

To some, it is the natural world for which conservation values will protect sustainable populations and ecosystems for future generations. The roots of that conservation ethic go back to the late 1800s, and Gifford Pinchot, the first dean of Yale School of Forestry. The ethic embraces “sustainable use” of forests and fish and the renewable resources that have supported economies.

Then, there’s the more modern concept of environment, stemming from Silent Spring, by Rachel Carson, published in 1962 and credited with helping launch the environmental movement in the U.S. The 1960s era of environmental awareness was actually more concerned with how human activity and new technologies-in this case toxic synthetic pesticides-threatened species, but perhaps more significantly, human health as well. Now that the publication of Silent Spring has passed the 50-year mark, it hardly is “modern” anymore. Our current use of the term “environment” has increasingly been subsumed in the media into one issue only-climate change.

Yet, climate change is not primarily an environmental issue. Sure, it involves the environment. In the same way drowning involves water, but we do not describe drowning as a “water issue.” Climate change, like drowning, is a survival issue. Climate change is an issue that can be described best as a security threat-although it involves questions of energy, economy, and the environment.

The harsh reality of our current political climate is that all the basic notions of the environment are under assault. We have entered a political era of “decision-based evidence making.” Stephen Harper’s administration has launched an unprecedented assault on government science. More than 2,000 scientists and researchers in the federal civil service have lost their jobs. Most of these scientists were working in areas of the “environment.”

All the scientists working in our national parks have been laid off. Fisheries and Oceans has lost all its habitat specialists after Bill C-38 gutted the Fisheries Act to remove habitat protection. The entire Marine Contaminants Program at DFO has been eliminated. The list is long. Mr. Harper is not just neglecting science; he is attacking any science or data or evidence that runs contrary to his beliefs or agenda.

Meanwhile, even though the only legislative change Harper has made to the Species at Risk Act was to remove the application of SARA when a pipeline is involved (also in C-38), still SARA is being more broadly undermined. Species at risk are going unprotected.

National parks no longer exclude oil and gas activity (with the tragic circumstances of the creation of Sable Island National Park.) This could be the thin end of the wedge for industrial activity in parks, in general. Meanwhile, parks are being privatized piecemeal, as is clear from the Jasper National Park “ice walk,” the Banff hot springs, and now a hotel proposal inside the national park in Jasper. Harper may have expanded national park boundaries, but he has endangered the protection of what lies inside the boundaries.

The pressure to clear away any regulatory hurdles to oil and gas expansion has led to the wholesale dismantling of decades’ worth of environmental laws and regulation. From legislation passed under prime minister John A. Macdonald (Fisheries Act and Navigable Waters Protection Act) to laws passed under former prime minister Brian Mulroney, (the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act and National Round Table on Environment and Economy), nothing is sacred. The last eight years bear witness to a devastating reversal of environmental law in Canada. It needs to be said that Canada’s laws never were as strong in environmental protection as those of the U.S. or other industrialized countries, such as Germany. In the race for the bottom, Canada has no competition.

Nowhere is the abdication of environmental responsibility as disturbing as in the area of climate change. Harper first cancelled our legally binding Kyoto targets, then withdrew from the treaty, adopted his own targets for GHG reductions in Copenhagen in 2009, and has now declared those will not be met either. True, he has not actually declared his rejection of his own targets, but the new timeline for oil and gas regulations, first promised when John Baird was environment minister nearly seven years ago (The “Turning the Corner” plan), make it clear no real effort is contemplated.

We all use oil. We will for a long time to come, but it must be used wisely, and we should all seek to reduce our consumption as much as possible, and shift to more renewable and sustainable energy sources. The sad and dispiriting irony is that if Canada embraced real action, we will create more jobs and revitalize our economy faster than by pursuing the mindless vision that puts all our eggs in the bitumen basket. Canada deserves better. We deserve an energy plan, a climate plan, and the new industrial revolution of clean-tech and renewables. We can still get there from here. The first step is for Prime Minister Stephen Harper to get out of the way.

Green Party Leader Elizabeth May represents Saanich- Gulf Islands, B.C., and Green Party MP Bruce Hyer represents Thunder Bay-Superior North, Ont.

Originally published in the Hill Times.

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The most important thing on the subject of biodiversity in the omnibus bill is the issue of the selling off of federal properties in British Columbia. Bill C-4 calls it the Dominion Coal Blocks. This area of over 60,000 hectares is very important to the region’s biodiversity. It is very important because there are also plans for a national park in that region.

I would like to ask my colleague if he agrees that it would be better to examine this very important proposal in a separate bill.

Jean Rousseau: Mr. Speaker, these are indeed examples of environmental legislation that should not be lumped together in a Sears catalogue or phone book, especially since those things are nearly obsolete. Legislation on biodiversity, which is so important for the environment, cannot be properly addressed in this way.

We were talking about belugas in the St. Lawrence. Studies and research have been done, but once again, the scientists who conduct this research are being muzzled and all of their hypotheses and evidence are being refuted.

Whether in western Canada, on the Pacific coast or on the Atlantic coast, this research is vital to Canada’s future and to the environment. The study of climate change begins with studies of seabeds in our national parks. Changes have been observed in the migration routes of ducks, geese and Canada geese in the fall, specifically because the biodiversity and flora have changed in the lakes where they once stopped over before heading further south. There are many in my riding and some on the land right beside where I live. It seems as though these birds no longer know where to go.

The impact of climate change is measurable, which is why we need research. This kind of legislation should definitely not be included in such an omnibus bill.

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Canada undermined global climate negotiations in Durban in December, negotiated in bad faith, and immediately announced intent to withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol when the Environment Minister touched down on Canadian soil. Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver kicked off the New Year with an assault on environmentalists and First Nations as “radicals.”  The Prime Minister attacked environmental groups for accepting foreign funding, even as he courted Communist Party controlled state operations from China as investors in the oil sands.  One Parliamentary Secretary said anyone opposed to pipelines and tankers was “against Canada.”  When asked to withdraw the remark as un-parliamentary, she refused.

The legislative juggernaut, C-38, repealed the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, replacing a coherent piece of legislation with a discretionary formula for confusion, conflict and court cases.  The gutting of the Fisheries Act raised the ire of four former federal Ministers of Fisheries.  Environment Minister Peter Kent insulted the four former ministers, suggesting they had not read the Act.  Mulroney era Minister Tom Siddon showed up to testify before the sub-committee on Finance and in short order made it clear he may be the only Minister who has read the act.  While Fisheries Minister Keith Ashfield tried to claim the new Fisheries Act will improve habitat protection, the assault to habitat is real, underscored by the subsequent lay-off notices to all DFO habitat officers in British Columbia. The National Round Table on the Environment and Economy is scrapped.  The Species at Risk Act and Navigable Waters Protection Act amended to allow the National Energy Board to assume jurisdiction of endangered species or navigable waters are in the way of any pipeline.

Basic science and monitoring is being savaged with the end of funding to the Canadian Foundation of Climate and Atmospheric Science, elimination of the Adaptation research group within Environment Canada, the cuts to ozone monitoring, the closure of the Polar Arctic and Environmental Laboratory (PEARL) in Eureka, the sale of the 58 lakes in the globally unique Experimental Lakes Area near Kenora, Ontario, the elimination of the marine contaminants programme within DFO, the loss of scientists in Natural Resources Canada to study ice cores data (and the hope to find a university with a large fridge willing to take the 80,000 year ice core record Canada’s government no longer wants), the end of monitoring smoke stack emissions, cut backs in the Canada Oil and Gas research group in Halifax, and cuts at NSERC (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada) resulting in the closing of the Yukon Research Lab at Yukon College in Whitehorse.

The thin end of the wedge of privatization has hit National Parks – first Jasper and then the hot springs at Banff, while cuts to ecological staff in the parks compelled former Deputy Minister Jacques Gerin to call on Harper to stop gutting National Parks.

It is a blitzkrieg of bad news as cut-backs and programme cancellation hit the core areas of federal responsibility to protect nature.  The multi-faceted assault has the effect of blinding media and the public to the largest threat.  In 2012, Canada still has no plan to address the threat of climate change.

While Stephen Harper has succeeded in dramatically reducing the Canadian media coverage of climate science through the muzzling of government scientists, the atmosphere does not seem to have gotten the memo.  Around the world, the force and frequency of severe weather events has woken up even the mainstream US media.  Fires, floods, tornadoes, heat waves are wreaking havoc on agriculture and running up the bills to the insurance industry.  The culprit for much of this year’s strange weather phenomenon is the rapidly warming Arctic.  As the Arctic warms the differential in temperature between the Arctic and the Equator becomes less pronounced. That causes the jet stream to lose its straight and fast course. (Francis, Vavrus study, Rutgers/Univ of Wisconsin). Slowing down, it has allowed large low pressure systems and high pressure systems to sit for far longer periods than normal in one place —  causing flooding in the low pressure zones and heat waves and fires in the high zones.

Loss of agriculture, losses to floods and fires also cost the economy, as well as human lives. Despite the Prime Minister’s attempts to destroy the collection of data, the evidence of the climate crisis is all around us.  We are sabotaging our children’s future – but what does it matter as long as the bitumen flows?

Elizabeth May is the Member of Parliament for Saanich-Gulf Islands and Leader of the Green Party of Canada.

First published in the Hill Times.

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The book, entitled Paradise Won: The Struggle for South Moresby was written in 1990 after an epic 12-year struggle to stop logging in a unique global ecosystem – referred to as “Canada’s Galapagos” – which stretches 90 km and includes 138 islands and is steeped in thousands of years of Haida culture.

“I wrote this book to celebrate the creation of Gwaii Haanas which was a major achievement for the Haida Nation as they asserted their sovereign rights and the environmentalists who worked selflessly with them,” explained May.  “After their courageous blockades and other forms of civil protest, it took the leadership of former prime minister Brian Mulroney to make this extraordinary conservation dream a reality.”

Paradise Won: The Struggle for South Moresby is now on the Elizabeth May MP website (www.elizabethmaymp.ca). Originally, published by McClelland and Stewart, the copyright has now reverted to the author and is no longer in publication.

PDF – http://elizabethmaymp.ca/wp-content/uploads/Elizabeth_May__Paradise_Won.pdf
eBook – http://issuu.com/canadiangreens/docs/elizabeth-may-paradise-won

“As Canadians face the most anti-nature prime minister in our history, I think it is important to revisit this historic triumph,” May said.  “The strategies and tactics that worked to save Gwaii Haanas from the chainsaw are needed once again to fight climate change and to protect fragile ecosystems from coast to coast to coast. 

“This book is a gift to all Canadians with the hope that it will entertain, inspire, and spur people to action.”

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“By the simple act of flipping a switch for one hour, Canadians tell the Harper Conservatives that it shouldn’t be lights out for our environment,” said Green Leader, Elizabeth May, Member of Parliament for Saanich-Gulf Islands. .

Earth Hour, organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is celebrated internationally on the last Saturday of March.  Residents, businesses, and governments will turn off their lights on Saturday, March 31st, between 8:30 and 9:30pm to raise awareness about the need to take action on climate change.

“This March is the warmest yet on record.  Our climate is already changing.  The need for action is more urgent than ever,” said May.

The newly released Harper Conservative budget has been roundly criticized for slashing funding to environmentally-related departments, including Environment Canada, Parks Canada, and Fisheries and Oceans, while continuing to subsidize the profitable fossil fuel industry.  Shamefully, climate change is not even mentioned in the budget.

“All around the world, citizens are crying out for action on climate change.  Unfortunately, the current government is bent on destroying environmental protection in Canada,” said May.

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“This budget continues the Harper Conservatives’ assault on the environment in more ways than one: Environment Canada, Parks Canada, and Fisheries and Oceans are all facing cuts (six per cent, four per cent, and four per cent respectively). The Harper Conservatives have followed through on threats to erode environmental protection and grease the wheels for greater fossil fuel development. First, it gagged the scientists; now it is killing the advisory institute — the National Round Table on Environment and Economy — and it has sent a warning shot to silence anti-government conservation groups. Without measurements, science, or critics who can speak without fear, Harper’s agenda heads towards steam-rolling massive fossil fuel expansion.

The cuts to seniors, veterans, cultural institutions, and overseas development assistance are all deeply disturbing. Earlier this week, Greens identified areas of waste equal to those areas chosen for cuts in this budget. The Prime Minister had a choice where to cut and where to invest. He made the wrong choices.

Greens are incensed by this government’s callous disregard for the things that matter most to Canadians.”

View the full original article >>

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This Act is an opportunity for Canadians to participate in the conservation and protection of heritage lighthouses that form an integral part of Canada’s identity, culture and heritage.

The Act conserves and protects lighthouses in four key ways:

• By providing a process for the selection and designation of heritage lighthouses, which includes a two-year public petition period to nominate any federally-owned lighthouse for designation.
• By preventing the unauthorized alteration or disposition of lighthouses that are designated as heritage lighthouses.
• By requiring that heritage lighthouses be reasonably maintained and altered only in keeping with the Standards and Guidelines for the Conservation of Historic Places in Canada.
• By facilitating sales or transfers of heritage lighthouses to promote an ongoing public purpose or new uses for them while ensuring their long term protection.

The designation of a heritage lighthouse may also include related buildings that contribute to the heritage character of the lighthouse, such as keepers’ residences and fog alarm buildings.

Discover how the petition, designation, and conservation processes work. If you are interested in nominating a lighthouse owned by the federal government that has not yet been nominated, you can refer to their Petition Process page to learn more. Petitions must be received by the Heritage Lighthouse Program on or before 29 May 2012.

For more information: http://www.pc.gc.ca/eng/progs/lhn-nhs/pp-hl/index.aspx

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Now the subject of public outrage, a ‘Glacier Discovery Walk’ is being proposed for a section of Jasper National Park, consisting of a metal walkway over the Icefields Parkway.  The project is proposed by American-owned Brewster Canada.  Environmental groups are concerned about the insufficient data on how such a project would affect mountain goats and other species.

“Canada’s National Parks are not meant to be money-makers,” said May. “They are primarily supposed to protect a range of ecosystems and to allow Canadians to appreciate the wonderful natural spaces and wildlife that we are so lucky to have in this country.”

Section 8(2) of the Canada National Parks Act makes “maintenance of restoration of ecological integrity, through the protection of natural resources and natural processes, the first priority of the Minister when considering all aspects of the management of parks.”

There has been a trend within Parks Canada to allocate budgets away from resource conservation into visitor experience.  In 2007, $167 million was spent on visitor experience, rising to $225 million in 2010.  Money for ecological integrity is now decreasing: $214 million in 2007 was cut to $192.6 million in 2010.  Overall, Parks Canada’s budget has been cut by almost 25% in the last 17 years. 

“Both the federal government and Parks Canada must realize that protection of our ecosystems is worth investing in, especially as the climate is changing,” said May.

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“A new national park in the South Okanagan and Similkameen Valleys in southern BC would be a real gift to the local people and to all Canadians for which future generations will be most grateful,” stated Ms. May. “It would be a first-rate national park in every way – in protecting Canada’s most endangered ecosystems and species, in helping to support and promote local First Nations cultures, and in attracting and generating significant revenues and jobs into the region like all national parks do in southern Canada. After 8 years of study, it’s high time this park proposal receive final approval.”

The creation of new national parks requires the approval of both federal and provincial governments. The BC and federal governments signed a Memorandum of Understanding in 2003 to examine the feasibility of a new national park in the South Okanagan and Similkameen Valleys in BC. Since then, numerous studies and public consultations have taken place, showing major local and regional support for the national park.

Parks Canada has a mandate to establish at least one national park in each of Canada’s 39 terrestrial natural regions. Currently there is no national park to represent the Interior Dry Plateau natural region of BC, characterized by Ponderosa pine and interior Douglas fir forests, grasslands, and semi-desert in the South Okanagan Valley. The area is filled with unique wildlife and species at risk, as well as the highly endangered “pocket desert” ecosystem near Osoyoos.

Besides helping to sustain the local ecosystems, First Nations, and economy, a national park in the region would also bring in additional fire management staff and resources to keep communities safer from wildfires. Parks Canada is one of the foremost agencies in Canada with an expertise in the science and management of wildfires through controlled burns and fuel reduction methods.

“This national park proposal is a great example of cross-partisan federal support. It was first initiated by the federal Liberal government, supported by the subsequent Conservative government through Parks Canada, supported by the federal NDP, and is certainly is supported by the Green Party. I hope this first rate proposal will now receive its final approval from the province of BC for what will only be a winning initiative for all Canadians.”

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As Executive Director of Sierra Club of Canada, I continued to be engaged in many British Columbia conservation campaigns, from Clayoquot Sound to Great Bear Rainforest. Our yearly progress reports, the ‘Rio Report Card,’ allowed me to track and write about the struggle to meet Canada’s international commitments to protect threatened ecosystems.

For at least the last dozen years or so, the work to create the Gulf Islands National Park Reserve has been so very encouraging. Creating a national park in the southern regions of Canada is the most uphill of struggles. Lands are already committed and tied up in different private ownership. Resource allocations have been made. Yet, the threats to habitat are most severe. Creating a national park in the Gulf Islands has presented more than its fair share of challenges.

Our area is within the Garry oak ecosystem, with more endangered species than nearly anywhere else in Canada. In the area, less than 5% of the habitat remains in anything like a natural state. The Garry Oak Ecosystems Recovery Team has been established out of a community-based concern for the recovery of these ecosystems and is able to work within Species at Risk Act provisions to develop policies and programmes to keep the over one hundred endangered species on our area from becoming extinct.

The Garry Oak ecosystem is about far more than the Garry Oak. Species associated with this ecosystem include everything from the Marbled Murrelet to the Golden Paintbrush to Orca whales. And all of those species face threats to their survival. One key component of keeping these species from slipping over the brink to extinction is the existence of the Gulf Islands National Park Reserve.

Despite the fact that we see Parks Canada facilities scattered through the Islands and see the park described and mapped while we travel on the ferries, the park is still not formally established under the Canada National Parks Act. Although it was announced as established in 2003, a number of legal steps are still incomplete. The key factor has been to remove all encumbrances on a large number of separate properties. Much great work has been done. Through a non-coercive process, key lands have been drawn into the park. Much of this is due to the cooperation of the provincial government. The federal government has been able to buy lands to expand the reach of national park status and protection. All told, the park protects about 35 square kilometres of precious habitat.

Meanwhile, some critical issues need to be resolved with First Nations. The designation ‘reserve’ connotes that the establishment of the park does not extinguish aboriginal title. Nevertheless, the proper recognition of First Nations’ traditional use and occupation requires a very high order of meaningful consultation—especially in this case where nineteen First Nations exert some level of claim.

Marine Component

The largest job requiring some new energy and concerted political will is to link all the land-based parts of the park within a marine park. That process has been moving along (or not moving at all) on a parallel track. The creation of a complete network in all 29 marine regions of Canada takes place through the National Marine Conservation Area (NMCA) process. It is, in every region of Canada, woefully behind schedule.

The proposal for the Gulf Islands area is called the Southern Strait of Georgia NMCA and it is currently stuck in what may be the world’s longest feasibility study. The memorandum of understanding between the British Columbia government and the federal government in 2003 launched this process. If you check the website for Parks Canada, you will see the feasibility study is described as underway and likely to take several years. The end point is still identified as ‘sometime in late 2008.’

The beauty of a marine park component linking the scattered bits of protection on Saturna, Mayne, Pender and smaller unpopulated islands is that it would protect key habitat. The levels of protection by law are not particularly onerous. All that is legally forbidden would be off-shore mineral exploration and development. In other words, it does not interrupt the ferries, commercial vessels, nor does it automatically create ‘no take’ fishery zones.

What it would do would be to shift consciousness about the richness of our marine biodiversity. That shift in awareness is being advanced by the newly opened Shaw Ocean Discovery Centre in Sidney. It offers a brilliant array of exhibits to inform and inspire. (If you have not yet visited, make a point of doing so next time you are in the area. About ten minutes from Swartz Bay, next door to the Pier Hotel in Sidney, it is a must, especially if you can bring along children or grandchildren.) Awareness is also being advanced by the move to rename our offshore areas the ‘Salish Sea,’ providing a unity to our mental map and imagining of our home territory. Let’s move to have our marine park created soon. Why not re-name it the Salish Sea NMCA?

It is time for residents of the Saanich-Gulf Islands to start asking some pointed questions. When will we see real progress on the marine component of the Gulf Islands national park reserve? What can we do to help?

Elizabeth E. May is leader of the Green Party of Canada, candidate in Saanich–Gulf Islands and Officer of the Order of Canada.

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