Fish can’t speak out, but you can! Save the Fisheries Act- it’s not too late!

Fish can’t speak out, but you can! Save the Fisheries Act- it’s not too late! 

The changes to the Fisheries Act and new regulations made under it, will have implications for the health of rivers and lakes across the Canada – not just for fish – but for all species, including us humans, who all depend on safe, healthy waters. Fish can’t speak out, but you can. 

Fishermen fishing for salmon in the Humber river, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

© Noah Cole, WWF-Canada

Posted by Tony Maas, World Wildlife Fund,  December 13, 2012

While the news this week that the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) has no formal plans to consult the public or stakeholders on still-pending changes to the Fisheries Act included in Bill C-38 back in June is not surprising, it is troubling.

On June 27, 2012, in the wake of Bill C-38, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Keith Ashfield announced a “nationwide public engagement and consultations process to be held throughout the summer and fall to develop the policy and regulatory framework that will support changes to the Fisheries Act adopted by the House of Commons earlier this month.” Background documents supporting this announcement state: “Through Summer and Fall 2012, the Department will engage Canadians, through a series of roundtables and meetings, and online, to get their feedback on various elements of the Government of Canada’s fisheries protection approach.”

These announcements signal that there may still be an opportunity for people and organizations like WWF to influence the governments’ new approach to fisheries management, and to appeal to the Minister and the Department through a formal process to maintain the important protections for fish habitat – not just fisheries – that have not yet been removed from the Fisheries Act(but remain on the chopping block). But it seems now that the department is backing away from this commitment to consult or is being quite selective and surgical, far from transparent with respect to who they consult and how.

The changes to the Fisheries Act and new regulations made under it, will have implications for the health of rivers and lakes across the Canada – not just for fish – but for all species, including us humans, who all depend on safe, healthy waters.

Please take a moment to call or email the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans to share your concerns on this issue and to ask if the government plans to make good on their commitment to engage Canadians on protecting our fisheries and the waters that sustain them.

Call Jeff Surtees CEO Trout Unlimited Canada

"I would like to hear from TUC members about how you are participating in the important debate about the importance of Canadian fisheries. Andrew Coyne says we shouldn't be cynical. Is he right? What more can we do? What are you doing? Call me and let me know."

Jeff Surtees - CEO

1-800-909-6040

The Opposition pushback over Bill C-38 — driven in part by the Green Party caucus of one, Elizabeth May — is about far more than political partisanship. It's about whether Parliament can prevent being pushed into complete irrelevance by a government which abuses its power, writes Andrew Coyne.

The C-38 debate is a last-ditch effort to save democracy's soul

By Andrew Coyne,

Postmedia News

June 13, 2012

The House of Commons was to begin voting Wednesday night on several hundred amendments to Bill C-38, the 425-page monster known as the omnibus budget implementation bill. The voting was expected to go on all night and all day Thursday.

Viewed one way, the whole thing is quite silly. Given the government's majority, none of the amendments is likely to pass, nor is the bill itself in any danger of defeat. Viewed another way, however, this is an important moment. For the first time since the last election, the opposition is putting up a serious fight against the abuses this government has visited upon Parliament: not only the omnibus bill — which repeals, amends or introduces more than 60 different pieces of legislation — but the repeated, almost routine curtailing of debate by means of "time allocation"; the failures of oversight, misstating of costs, and abdication of responsibility in the F-35 purchase; and the refusal to provide basic information on spending to Parliament or the Parliamentary Budget Officer — to say nothing of the stonewalling, prorogations and other indignities of the minority years.

Read more here

Editorial: The Frankenbill follies

Wednesday, Parliament will begin a marathon voting session to consider opposition amendments to the 425-page budget bill, which, as presented, would rewrite about 70 different pieces of legislation, ranging from protection of fisheries to employment insurance and Old Age Security.

Photograph by: CHRIS WATTIE , REUTERS

Editorial: The Frankenbill follies

Opposition deserves credit for challenging federal budget bill

Calgary Herald

June 13, 2012

The Harper government’s mammoth federal budget legislation, Bill C-38, also known as the omnibus bill and nicknamed the Frankenbill, the End of Democracy As We Know It Act and the Harper Hammer, will finally get some much-needed scrutiny, even if it is little more than a symbolic protest in the face of the Tory majority juggernaut.

Today, Parliament will begin a marathon voting session to consider opposition amendments to the 425-page bill, which, as presented, would rewrite about 70 different pieces of legislation, ranging from protection of fisheries to employment insurance and Old Age Security. Although many of the changes are needed and long overdue, there are some that demand debate. Among these are the heavily criticized changes to the Fisheries Act, which received all of 14 hours debate at a parliamentary subcommittee.

Even though many of the proposed changes do away with or streamline outdated relics of legislation from bygone eras, Bill C-38 has come to symbolize the abusive power of the government and its disregard for parliamentary scrutiny. Last month, four former federal fisheries ministers, including two Conservatives, Tom Siddon and John Fraser, criticized the omnibus bill as an affront to democracy and an abdication of ministerial responsibility.

“In the old days, whether we were Progressive Conservative, or Liberal, or environmentalists, or Greens, we had the heart and soul — the values of Canada — at the top of our agenda. Whereas this government seems to place the pocketbook at the top of their agenda,” Siddon complained. “The real scary part of this is that the one minister in Canada who has the constitutional duty to protect the fishery, which includes habitat, is the fisheries minister, and these amendments essentially parcel out and water down his fiduciary responsibility, to the point that . . . he can delegate his responsibility to private-sector interests and individuals,” Siddon said.

Fraser said omnibus bills should only be used in national emergencies. “I don’t think an omnibus bill is appropriate procedurally. The point (is) ... you’ve got to vote either for the whole thing or against it. That’s bad democracy.”

It’s debatable whether many of the changes in Bill C-38 are even related to the federal budget, but it’s difficult to know.

An omnibus bill this large denies Canadians the ability to fully comprehend the proposed changes.

Democracy is messy, cumbersome and inconvenient, but eliminating proper study and scrutiny only fosters mistrust and anxiety.

The Harper government is already perceived as an environmental laggard. A longer period of debate could work to the government’s advantage, giving it time to explain changes more fully. Instead, Bill C-38 reinforces the argument that this government will pursue its agenda no matter the cost.

The opposition deserves credit for attempting to hold the government to account on Bill C-38, even if it turns out to be futile.

LINK

Note: All bolding is ours  

Part 4: Green gets mean with Ottawa

'We don't take it when we are bulldozed,' says Joe Foy, national campaign director for the Wilderness Committee, referring to the Harper government's plan to give tax authorities more power to question the political activities of charities.

Photograph by: Ward Perrin, PNG , Vancouver Sun

Green gets mean with Ottawa

Conservatives' proposed dilution of environmental laws, attacks on groups has created backlash

Fourth in a four-part series

By Gordon Hoekstra,

Vancouver Sun

June 8, 2012

Discord between the Tories and environmentalists began when the federal natural resources minister maligned environmental groups as radicals. It escalated with the introduction of Bill C-38, a package of new laws, some directly targeting charities and environmental protections.

Now it's war.

Environmental groups are fighting back after the Conservatives accused them of hijacking public decision making and using foreign funding to damage national economic interests. Their target is Bill C-38 which opponents say weakens fish habitat protection and strengthens the taxman's powers to question charities. The changes will bring more scrutiny to foreign funding for charities and also how they use money for political purposes. Charities will also have to take more responsibility for the political activities of groups to which they give money.

It will give bureaucrats new powers to suspend the charitable status of groups, a designation that helps organizations raise money by allowing them to issue receipts for tax deductions.

And Bill C-38 will give an extra $8 million to the Canada Revenue Agency for stepped-up audits of those groups.

Now that Prime Minister Stephen Harper has a majority, his government will be able to push through the new laws before parliament breaks for the summer.

Environmental organizations that operate in B.C. are fearful of the changes, but not cowed.

Read more here