Pipeline development was ‘top of mind’ in Stephen Harper’s budget bill, say “secret” records Publish Date: 26-SEP-2012 09:46 AM Pipeline development was a “top of mind” consideration factoring into the Harper government’s regulatory reforms adopted in a 400-page piece of legislation supporting the 2012 budget, reveals an internal briefing note prepared for Environment Minister Peter Kent. Nearly one third of the budget legislation was dedicated to changing Canada’s environmental laws, offering new tools for the government to authorize water pollution, investigate environmental groups, weaken protection of endangered species, and limit public participation in consultations and reviews of proposed industrial projects.
Harper government cancels 3,000 environmental reviews on pipelines and other projects Publish Date: 23-AUG-2012 02:48 PM The Harper government’s budget legislation has forced the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency to cancel nearly 3,000 screenings into potential environmental damage caused by proposed development projects across Canada, including hundreds involving a pipeline or fossil fuel energy, according to published records.
Knowing truth tougher without research: is that the PM’s objective? Publish Date: 24-JUL-2012 05:18 AM Earlier this month research scientists in lab coats held a protest lab on Parliament Hill. Their demonstration included a symbolic funeral procession for ‘evidence’ amid Conservative cuts to research funding and federal in-house research capacity. The protest also came on the heels of a federal budget that put the axe to the National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy (NRTEE), the First Nations Statistical Institute (FNSI) and the National Council on Welfare (NCW). Taken together, the chop to these three agencies takes just $7.5 million off the federal books – a paltry sum in relation to the value of the public goods they provided and now lost to Canada.
Hidden cost of cuts to Environment Canada Publish Date: 29-AUG-2011 03:21 PM Thomas J. Duck is an associate professor in the Department of Physics and Atmospheric Science at Dalhousie University in Halifax.
Death of Evidence: Birth of a Movement?
Publish Date: 20-JUL-2012 02:05 PM
On July 10th, well over one thousand scientists and their supporters, many wearing their lab coats, marched through the streets of Ottawa and on to Parliament Hill to send a strong message to the federal government.
