Reel life situation makes waves

[Spiel]

Reel life situation makes waves

 

 

May 13th, 2009

Greg Weston / The Peterborough Examiner

 

Today’s tour of federal absurdity takes us to Canada’s rivers, streams and other rich fish habitats where the biggest environmental threat to aquatic life may well be the government agencies protecting it.

 

In a damning report released yesterday, Canada’s environmental watchdog chews out the federal fisheries department for all but leaving the nation’s freshwater ecosystems up a creek without a protector.

 

Environment Commissioner Scott Vaughan reported bluntly: “We found that efforts to protect fish habitat have been inadequate.”

 

The stakes in all this are enormous. With more than a million freshwater lakes and the world’s longest coastline, Canada’s fish habitats provide food and shelter for aquatic wildlife, and drinkable water for human consumption.

 

They also produce billions of dollars of wealth from commercial and sport fishing, tourism, and dozens of other industries.

 

In short, governments in this country are responsible for protecting a world-scale natural resource, and a major source of economic prosperity for all Canadians.

 

How are the federal stewards of this amazing water-world doing so far?

 

The environment commissioner points out that 23 years after the federal government developed a comprehensive fish habitat policy, many parts of it still have not been implemented.

 

The federal fisheries department — astoundingly –”does not measure habitat loss or gain.” In fact, Vaughan says, the department has “limited information on the state of fish habitat across Canada — that is, on fish stocks, the amount and quality of fish habitat, contaminants in fish, and overall water quality.”

 

The department burns through more than $70 million a year specifically on programs related to protecting fish habitats, but still has no clue if all that money and effort is making the slightest improvement.

 

In practical terms, the environment commissioner paints a bureaucratic picture that would make perfect spoof material were the issues not so serious.

 

For instance, the fisheries department’s primary role in protecting fish habitat is to review proposals for projects in or near water, including major development initiatives such as mines and hydroelectric dams.

 

But in a random review of dozens of those proposals from 2007, the commissioner found missing information in up to 90% of the files — little stuff such as “identification of the project’s potential impact on fish habitat.”

 

Overall, “none of the project files we reviewed contained all of the information that the department requires to assess a project.”

 

The result of so much bureaucratic ineptitude can be ecologically disastrous.

 

Vaughan’s report documents one case in which the federal fisheries department allowed commercial gravel to be mined from the Fraser River in B. C., ostensibly for flood control, even though the agency determined the project would be “harmful to the fish habitat.”

 

Vaughan notes that subsequent studies showed there was “no reduction” in flooding after the gravel was mined out of the river. It did, however, wipe out an estimated 2,250,000 pink salmon.

 

The fisheries department did nothing to one company that mined outside its approved area, took more gravel than permitted, and destroyed an entire fish habitat.

 

“The department advised us that it was short of resources at the time.”

 

Fisheries isn’t the only federal department in hot water with the environment commissioner.

 

The environment department is also responsible for helping to prevent the discharge of sewage, harmful chemicals and other pollutants into fish habitats. But after years and many meetings, “Environment Canada does not have a compliance strategy” to ensure industries don’t poison the fish.

 

Perhaps the worst part of this story is the environment commissioner publicly rang all the same alarm bells back in 2001.

 

Today, Vaughan reports, “there has been little progress.”

[bigugli]

As long as we vote in inept governments, bureauceacies will be just as inept.