Four years ago, the Harper government gutted the laws that protect freshwater in Canada, including the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, the Fisheries Act, and the Navigable Waters Protection Act. In doing so, he stripped protection from 99% of the lakes and rivers in Canada.
This also left critical community drinking water sources vulnerable to contamination from mining, pipelines, liquefied fracked gas terminals and other industrial projects that pose a direct threat.
Now Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is launching a major review of these water laws – and he wants to hear from you!
It's critical that you speak up now. That's because lobbyists from Big Oil and mining, which lobbied the Harper government to gut the water laws in the first place, don't want these protections restored. And right now they are using their deep pockets and political connections to lobby our new government to keep things as they were under Harper.
Please take a moment now to tell Prime Minister Trudeau it's time to protect every lake and every river in Canada.
Dear Prime Minister Trudeau,
I welcome your government's recent announcement that it will review federal water and climate legislation, and consult with experts, Indigenous Peoples and the Canadian public as part of this process.
However, these federal reviews will take months to complete and even longer before the new laws are implemented. In the meantime, the current watered-down laws set by the Harper Conservatives in 2012 would remain in effect, leaving 99 per cent of our precious lakes and rivers at serious environmental risk at the hands of Big Oil & Gas, mining and other polluting industries seeking to fast-track new projects before the new laws come into effect.
Therefore, I urge you to immediately and fully restore the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, the Fisheries Act and the Navigable Waters Protection Act (currently the Navigation Protection Act) to their 2012 standards until new and stronger laws are in effect.
It is imperative that your government demonstrates the leadership needed to fulfill this responsibility and protect every lake and every river today.
[Your comments go here]
Sincerely,
[Your name]
