Our job and yours just got a lot tougher…and more important.
Today, the federal government passed the much talked-about Bill C-38. Included in this budget bill are some significant changes to environmental laws – like the Environmental Assessment Act, Species at Risk Act, and Fisheries Act – that leave our natural resources vulnerable through weakened processes and lack of informed decision-making.
This decision—sadly, ironically—arrives on the eve of Rio+20, an international conference focused on sustainable development, which Canada has all but shunned. In this context, the passing of Bill C-38 further emphasizes and exacerbates the growing distance between Canada and other nations in addressing environmental concerns. While emerging leaders are taking progressive approaches to prepare their economies for the future and steward their resources, Canada’s government –which oversees an enviable share of the world’s natural resources – is turning its back on nature.
The damaging effects of this Bill on the environment—and on the relationship between civil society and government—simultaneously make WWF’s mission more important and harder to accomplish. For more than four decades, WWF has worked with governments across the political spectrum to advance rational, collaborative and science-based decision-making about what is best for Canada’s environment and economy. But today, this bill throws out that approach, and instead pits Canadian livelihoods against healthy ecosystems as if the former isn’t fully dependent on the latter.
It’s not just our approach and ideology that’s at stake here. It’s also our day-to-day work. The far-reaching implications of this bill undermine our efforts to support a national energy strategy that will move us toward a green energy future. It hinders acknowledgement of the oil spill response gap that we’ve highlighted as a major risk of Arctic offshore drilling. And it obstructs progress to restore and secure the health of our nation’s rivers and the fisheries they sustain.
However, the most immediate and visible impact of this bill will likely emerge in the Great Bear region of the B.C. coast—one of the rarest, most productive, and most spectacular ecosystems on Earth. The weakened assessment process resulting from Bill C-38 clears the path for the proposed Northern Gateway oil pipeline, slated to bring hundreds of huge oil tankers each year to this rare, wild space. And it helps silence the voices of Canadians who are concerned about the environmental, economic, and cultural risks associated with this project.
And that brings this all back to you. Because while WWF’s job just became harder and more important, so did yours. Canadians can no longer sit back and depend on our government to address our environmental needs, values, and concerns. If we can take one positive thing away from the passing of this Bill, it is a rallying cry to individuals and communities to become more vigilant and more engaged in defending our lands, waters and the globally important spaces—like the Great Bear—that make up our nation.
There are hundreds of ways to get started. Today, I’m asking you to take one: become a Canadian for the Great Bear. Join us and the Coastal First Nations in taking a stand on this issue, in this place—because the eyes of the nation and the world are watching. Choose a sustainable future for the Great Bear, and in doing so, help choose a different future for Canada. One that better reflects what this country is really about.