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| Allan Adam, chief of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation at Fort Chipewyan, is determined to protect the province's largest lake and its longest river from the impact of oildands development |
Feds remove water protection from historic law
New federal water-protection law a sham,
say Green party, First Nations group
Legislation will replace Navigable Waters
Protection Act first introduced in 1882
By Mike De Souza,
Calgary Herald
Postmedia News
October 22, 2012
OTTAWA-The Harper government is proposing
to stop one of Canada’s oldest laws protecting bodies of water across the
country.
The changes, introduced as part of a
443-page budget implementation bill tabled Thursday in Parliament, would
replace the Navigable Waters Protection Act, first introduced in 1882, with a
new Navigation Protection Act covering a list of 97 lakes, 62 rivers and the
three oceans on Canada’s coasts.
See if your river or lake is affected by the change right here.
Transport Minister Denis Lebel suggested that the changes could ease the burden on companies seeking approval on new industrial projects such as oilsands development or mining extraction.
For example, under the existing law, Transport Canada had urged Shell Canada to provide more information about a proposed “diversion” of the Muskeg River for a new oilsands project.
While this process would continue, future project approvals on that river or many others would not be subject to a review under the new law unless Transport Canada expands its list of protected bodies of water.
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