How the Conservatives' brief love affair with environmentalism came to an ugly end

Tides Canada CEO Ross McMillan poses in Vancouver, B.C., May 31, 2012. 

McMillan was the architect of the Great Bear Rainforest agreement.

Photograph by: Arlen Redekop , PNG

How the Conservatives' brief love affair with environmentalism came to an ugly end

First in a four-part series

By Peter O'Neil, 

Vancouver Sun 

June 4, 2012

OTTAWA — When a deal to protect B.C.'s Great Bear Rainforest was brokered in January 2007, one of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's most trusted lieutenants singled out the environmental and social justice organization Tides Canada as being crucial in Ottawa's decision to contribute $30 million to the plan.

John Baird, then Harper's new environment minister and now head of foreign affairs, said the Harper government acted due to fear that the unprecedented $60-million contribution raised by Vancouver-based Tides - the vast majority from U.S. foundations - was in jeopardy of being lost to the total $120-million fund.

"I was tremendously concerned . . . that we could lose that, particularly the money coming from abroad, so we didn't want to have that happen," Baird said at a Vancouver event where he shared the stage with first nations leaders, and Tides chief executive Ross McMillan.

Baird spoke emphatically in Vancouver about the importance of habitat to 355 species in the 6.4 million-hectare rainforest. He also stressed his commitment to keep working with environmentalists and first nations.

"I hope that this is a beginning, not an end."

Flash-forward to late 2011 and the world has turned upside-down.

Harper warned last November that "significant American interests" are funnelling money through "environmental groups and others" - presumably first nations - to stop Enbridge Inc.'s $5.5 billion Northern Gateway oilsands pipeline from Alberta to the B.C. coast, where huge tankers will cruise the waters near the Great Bear Rainforest.

Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver followed a few weeks later with an open letter denouncing environmental groups as foreign-funded "radical" organizations determined to "hijack" Canada's need to develop natural resources.

Tides was the only organization Oliver named in interviews.

The letter was like an aerial bombardment to soften up the enemy before a ground assault - a March federal budget which gave $8 million to the Canada Revenue Agency to step up audits and enact other compliance measures targeting groups that accept foreign funding for alleged political activities.

The budget also included the promise of significant amendments to major federal environmental protection tools, notably the Fisheries Act and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act.

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