Self assessment of environmental impact

[seadna]

See http://www.bcbusiness.ca/natural-resources/the-problem-with-self-regulated-environmental-assessments-
"As capital investment in B.C.’s natural resource sector grows, the role of environmental assessments has become critical to a project’s viability. A negative assessment can mean the death of a development worth billions. But with the feds now promoting a self-regulating, self-reporting model of assessment, many worry that the environment—and the public interest—is being compromised for the sake of the almighty dollar"

 

[terrin]

Just look at how self regulating and self reporting worked out for the average Greek Joe in the Greek debt saga or how it would work out in Iran's Nuclear Program. I don't think Big Business would be any different just self interest. In the end if they screw up they just go bankrupt and the public pays to clean up the mess.

 

[seadna]

I think the bigger point is that over the past 8-10 years a lot of environmental protections have been stripped from Canadian law and the funding for enforcement and regulation has also declined. Anyone who is concerned about that should make their political representatives very aware of their concern and perhaps vote differently in the future.

 

[terrin]

The problem with a Politician taking that stand lately is they get smeared with Jobs, Jobs, Jobs its the economy stupid. In the case of our current issues with pipelines I would vote for any Politician that takes the position to fully refine the Oil at source so the people get full value of the resource and then when a spill does occur it will at least quickly evaporate and cause much less environmental damage. Russia stopped selling its raw logs to China and B.C. just stepped in to fill the gap why not mill it into dimensional lumber first instead of practically giving it away maybe that way we wouldn't need to strip the hills so fast. Politicians have stopped taking a long term view of what is best for the the people they represent and the land they live on and basically focus on how to get re-elected in four years time.