AG Slams Federal Fish Protection

[Governor]

AG Slams Federal Fish Protection

May 19th, 2009
By Larry Pynn, Canwest News Service

The federal auditor general has delivered a scathing report on Ottawa's efforts to protect fish habitat, including a lack of monitoring, enforcement and accountability.

The report by the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development on behalf of the auditor general finds that Fisheries and Oceans Canada "cannot demonstrate" that fish habitat is being adequately protected.

"The department does not measure habitat loss or gain. It has limited information on the state of fish habitat across Canada -- that is, on fish stocks, the amount and quality of fish habitat, contaminants in fish, and overall water quality."

The report also cites a lack of co-operation between the federal Fisheries Department and

Environment Canada, adding the latter agency needs to develop better policies to pursue Fisheries Act violations, such as pollution damaging fish habitat.

The report upholds the concerns of conservation groups about the removal of gravel in the lower Fraser River in British Columbia, saying it has killed millions of juvenile fish and failed to meet the province's stated objective of reducing flood risk.

Ian Matheson, director general of habitat management for the Department of Fisheries, said recently that his department accepts the report's findings and is committed to a three-year action plan to rectify the department's shortcomings, with regular updates to the office of Commissioner Scott Vaughan.

He said the department needs to prove it is "doing the right thing" and is already moving ahead on two fronts: one involves better co-ordination of project documents; the other is a risk-assessment model to better categorize the 7,000 projects annually received for assessment so staff can concentrate on the riskier ones.




God never did make a more calm, quiet, innocent recreation than angling - Izaak Walton

 

[Cuba Libre]

Oh-- I am just shocked!!!!! Who wodda thought??? [V]

20ft Alumaweld Intruder

 

[Little Hawk]

Governor;

Is this the Sheila Fraser report we've been waiting for?

 

[agentaqua]

the full report is available at: http://www.oag-bvg.gc.ca/internet/English/parl_cesd_200905_01_e_32511.html

Notable quotes include:

"Our audit work focused mainly on fish habitat in fresh water and estuaries rather than the marine environment."

"Fisheries and Oceans Canada and Environment Canada cannot demonstrate that fish habitat is being adequately protected as the Fisheries Act requires. "

"Fisheries and Oceans Canada has made progress in implementing the Environmental Process Modernization Plan (EPMP) so that it can better manage risks that various projects pose to fish habitat.Under the Plan, the Department does not require that proposals for low-risk projects be submitted to it for review, relying instead on project proponents to voluntarily comply with habitat protection measures and conditions. This streamlining of the review process was intended to free up departmental resources for review of projects that pose a higher risk to habitat. For those projects that it has reviewed, however, the Department has little documentation to show that it monitored the actual habitat loss that occurred, whether habitat was protected by mitigation measures required as a condition for project approval, or the extent to which project proponents compensated for any habitat loss. Moreover, the Department reduced enforcement activity by half and at the time of our audit had not yet hired habitat monitors to offset this reduction"

"Environment Canada has not clearly identified what it has to do to fulfill its responsibility for the Fisheries Act provisions that prohibit the deposit of substances harmful to fish in waters they frequent. It has not established clear priorities or expected results for its administration of the prohibition. Since 2005, departmental initiatives have identified the need for national guidance and coordination in administering the Act’s provisions. However, the Department’s activities have been largely reactive and inconsistent across the country."

"Environment Canada does not have a systematic approach to addressing risks of non-compliance with the Act that allows it to focus its resources where significant harm to fish habitat is most likely to occur. Further, it has not determined whether the stringent pollution prohibition of the Fisheries Act is being satisfied by the combination of the results achieved from its own activities under both the Fisheries Act and the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999, and those achieved by other levels of government."

Now keep in mind that the federal conservative government wants to now "streamline" the Navigable Waters Protection Act, especially for so-called "low risk" projects.

The proposed changes will:

1. Eliminate environmental assessments, with few exceptions, for development projects on Canadian waterways.

2. Allow Canada’s rivers to be separated into those that are worth protecting and those that can be exploited.

3. Those classifications can be determined secretly within cabinet with no public consultation, no basis in science and no opportunity for any appeal.

4. Ensure that these decisions will most certainly be made based on political expediency rather than on scientific or long-term social and environmental considerations.

All this with inadequate monitoring.

Don't forget everyone that the Senate Energy Environment and Natural Resources Committee will begin hearings on the proposed changes as outlined in Bill C-10 submitted by the conservative party - to the Navigable Waters Protection Act from this April 23rd 2009, continuing with intensive study through to June 2009.

Contact the Committee Clerk at eenr-eern@sen.parl.gc.ca