Last year, the federal government gutted most of Canada's oldest and most important environmental laws, including the Fisheries Act and Navigable Waters Protection Act. If brought into force, the amendments to these two acts would eliminate legal protection of navigation on 99% of Canada's lakes and rivers and severely restrict protection of its fish and fish habitat.
These changes put Canada at risk of becoming the NAFTA "pollution haven" the agreement was designed to prevent.
But there's still time to protect Canada's environment and its international reputation.
Those amendments are not yet in force. The federal government has announced that they plan to bring these changes into effect on November 25, 2013.
Act now to help Canada keep its international commitments and maintain environmental protection through strong environmental laws. Tell the federal government not to gut its environmental laws for the sake of industrial pocket-books.
Dear Prime Minister Harper, Minister Shea and Minister Raitt,
I am writing to urge you to uphold Canada's commitments under the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation and not bring into force amendments to the Fisheries Act and Navigable Waters Protection Act that put fish and navigation at risk.
If brought into force, the amendments would eliminate legal protection of 99% of Canada's lakes and rivers, severely curtail the protection of fish habitat and eliminate protection of fish that are not part of, or otherwise support, an existing fishery.
Canada signed the environmental side agreement to address concerns that free trade would give the NAFTA partners an incentive to weaken environmental protection. It commits Canada to maintaining and improving its environmental laws, properly enforcing those laws, furthering scientific research in respect of environmental matters and ensuring that environmental regulatory proceedings are fair, open and equitable.
Now, Canada is at risk of becoming the kind of NAFTA "pollution haven" the agreement was designed to prevent.
[Your comment will be added here]
Please uphold Canada's commitments and do not bring into force the Bill C-38 and Bill C-45 amendments to the Fisheries Act and Navigable Waters Protection Act.
Sincerely,
[Your name here]
