Login / RegisterBill C-38 annihilates environmental legislation
Is the average Canadian citizen even aware that Stephen Harper’s government is trying to push through what it is calling this Budget Implementation Act, a.k.a. Bill C-38 [“ Vancouver-based environmentalist Jessica Clogg ‘blown away’ by response to national website blackout campaign”, web-only]?
Environmental groups are against Bill C-38 and it’s undemocratic because this Budget Implementation Act has little to do with the budget. Fully 30 percent of the 420-page bill is actually not about the budget at all.
Instead of addressing budget matters, the act brings in sweeping changes to Canada’s environmental laws.
It repeals the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act and introduces a weaker version, without a single day of hearings before the environment committee. It also removes protection of endangered species and their habitats when approving pipeline projects by amending the Species at Risk Act and the Navigable Waters Protection Act.
In addition, it guts the Fisheries Act by removing provisions for habitat protection. It repeals the Kyoto Protocol Implementation Act, and eliminates the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy.
Omnibus bills subvert the parliamentary process by denying members of Parliament and the Canadian public the ability to fully study or understand the drastic changes being made to our laws without proper study or scrutiny.
This bill is an embarrassment. The rest of the world must be shaking its head at Canada and our parliamentary process.
> Christine Ho / Vancouver
What this article is not telling you is the main "changes" aren't harmful to the environment. The changes to the acts and writing of new acts was to remove the energy board from being in control, and instead place the last word in the hands of ministers.
The reason the "environmentalists" (not really) are choked is because it cuts off their "charitable" status, and sets rules to who they can accept funding from if they are going to lobby the Canadian Government, hence the "blackout" of the David Suzuki foundation; The Sierra Club; and Greenpeace.
I find it absolutely disgusting how these enviro-fakies are trying to spin this as "undemocratic".
Harper was elected to a majority government by Canadians (!), to take care of the BS that's been going on. He's making it harder for foreign interests to lobby our government. He's taking the power out of the hands of unaccountable appointed officials (energy board) and putting it into the hands of elected officials who are accountable to the public.
The argument that what's been done is wrong or undemocratic is plain stupid.
The above "article" is actually a letter to the editor, as indicated at the top.
And the use of the term majority government does not necessarily mean said government was elected by a "majority" of Canadians.
The Conservatives won 167 seats,
The NDP - 102
Liberals - 34
Bloc Québécois with four
Green Party with one.
Do the math, the majority is clearly Conservative.
In democracy, the majority rules.
This is what they were elected for.
Before you try to get into the robocalls scandal, I got one of those calls, and I, like the majority, vote Conservative.
Please read my second sentence again.
Our parliamentary democracy is, at it's essence, an honour system. In a first past the post system, those holding the reigns of power are normally bound by parliamentary tradition to play fair. This applies even more so in the case of Mr Harper whose gov't has a majority of seats, but nowhere near a majority of the popular vote (39.62%).That this has not been the case with the Harpist gov't speaks volumes about the lack of honour of those involved.
There has never been an assault on our parliamentary traditions like Bill C-38. If this gov't is honourable, then why the need to engage in dirty Alabama-style politics. Omnibus bills should be banned. A budget bill is a budget bill, not a hammer with which to silence your opposition.
Urge your MP to propose banning omnibus legislation.
Sick of this right-winger B.S.
Jesus Christ, Cole, get that stick out of your ass.
PS voting conservative is what gets us in these situations. The mass majority think they are voting for jobs - and you are - at the cost of everything else. It should be called the money first party. Kudos to you for being so darned smart.
Conservatives educate others as well as spend time researching to educate themselves.
Liberals react on fealing with zero sense of the actuall facts. Have any of you noticed the thousands of jobs provided in the oil buissness aswell as the sustainable source of energy and the UNREAL amount of tax revinue. Also have you thought to remind yourselves that oil is in 97% of everything we make? Clothing? electronics? plastics? food preservatives? ink? Soap? practically everything in hostpitals? fine, you want to be, "eco-Friendly"? then go live in a cave.
1. There is NO human induced climate change. To suggest otherwise is misleading. Humans emit LESS than .02% of CO2 in the atmosphere! To try to eliminate ALL CO2, well. plants need CO2 to convert it to OXYGEN. The correct term is Photosynthesis. I'm sure ALL eniroMENTALISTS are not acknowledging that we humans need it. To put a price on CO2, to punish the big emitters, though reasonable in practice, is (with the crazy price you suggest) going to SEVERELY restrict Canada's economy. Of course, if you, and I'm sure you do, support NDP Leader Mulcair's twisted economic view(s), yours, and many others (Suzuki, Greenpeace, Elizabeth May,NDP, etc., etc.) like yours need some severe "head shaking" to fall in line with economic reality.
You put down the Oilsands, which makes NO sense as they're environmental record is FAR above other industries. Does anyone of your ilk EVER talk about what devastation is brought to the environment through open pit mining? For you enviros, this is done in "eco-friendly" Quebec! There is NO reclamation there! Or how about Quebec's Hydro that flooded out your beloved Cree, effectively killing thousands and thousand of wildlife and their way of life. Plus, Quebec's Hydro emits, now please get this, MORE, yes MORE CO2 than the dreaded Oilsands.
I have a LOT more to say, but I'm tired refuting, actually, offering REALISTIC, and PROVABLE points, to these nonsensical talking points by you and other airheads. I only got to point one. You people are nuts.
Patrick- your right on.
"There's a lot of information floating around about climate change. Most people know it has something to do with industrial pollution, changing weather and car exhaust, and they kind of get what Al Gore was trying to say in An Inconvenient Truth. But when asked to explain the problem in lay terms, they get tripped up in a lot of verbal stumbling.
In a nutshell, climate change occurs when long-term weather patterns are altered — for example, through human activity. Global warming is one measure of climate change, and is a rise in the average global temperature.
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How does it happen?
Life on Earth is possible because of the warmth of the sun. While some of this incoming solar radiation bounces back into space, a small portion of it is trapped by the delicate balance of gases that make up our atmosphere. Without this layer of insulation, Earth would simply be another frozen rock hurtling through space. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the most important gas in this layer of insulation.
Carbon is stored all over the planet — in plants, soil, the ocean, and even us. We release it into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide through activities such as burning fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas) and cutting down trees. As a result, today's atmosphere contains 32 per cent more carbon dioxide than it did at the start of the industrial era.
We have released so much carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that our planet's atmosphere is now like a thick, heat-trapping blanket. By disrupting the atmospheric balance that keeps the climate stable, we are now seeing extreme effects around the globe. It's like a thermostat that's gone haywire — it just doesn't work the way it should. The result: the climate changes, and it gets warmer. Extreme weather events also become more common.
Global warming has already begun. Since 1900, the global average temperature has risen by 0.6 degrees Celsius, and the northern hemisphere is substantially warmer than at any point during the past 1,000 years.
Who keeps tab on climate change?
Our understanding of climate change is largely the result of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the world's most authoritative voice on the topic. Established by the United Nations, the IPCC assesses the scientific and socio-economic information relevant to climate change. The IPCC also looks at the potential impacts of climate change, and options for slowing it down or adapting to it.
The IPCC has released several assessment reports over the years. More than 2,500 scientific expert reviewers, 800 contributing authors and 450 lead authors from over 130 countries contributed to the last one, the Fourth Assessment Report. The Fifth Assessment Report's Working Group I report is expected to be released in 2013.
Despite the international scientific community's consensus on climate change, a small number of climate change deniers continue to deny that climate change exists or that humans are causing it. However, these individuals are generally not climate scientists, and their arguments have been discredited by the scientific community at large. The debate is over about whether or not climate change is real; it is now time to act to solve the problem."