Fundy Baykeeper - Defending the Bay of Fundy

For more information, contact:
David Thompson, Fundy Baykeeper - 506-650-5849, 632-1297
Janice Harvey, Fundy Baykeeper Program Director - 506-466-4033, 529-8838, 466-8653

    Federal Environment Minister Rona Ambrose is wrong to say the federal government has limited ability to intervene in situations where municipalities are dumping raw sewage into our coastal waters, said David Thompson, the Conservation Council of New Brunswick's Fundy Baykeeper.

    Mr. Thompson was responding to a statement attributed to Ms. Ambrose in a Canadian Press story of March 28. While decrying this third world approach to sewage management, Ms. Ambrose suggested the federal government has no jurisdiction over water and therefore could only work through local groups to promote best practices.

    "Ms. Ambrose is just wrong on this," said Thompson. "The federal Fisheries Act is the strongest environmental legislation in the country. The Fisheries Act says it is illegal to pollute water used by fish or to harm fish habitat. If a person, company or municipality does either of these things, they can be charged under federal law and ordered to stop."

    The federal government has never exercised this power in the case of coastal communities dumping raw sewage into the ocean. "That Ottawa has refused to enforce the Fisheries Act in these cases makes them complicit in the pollution of our coastal environment," Thompson said. "If the federal Minister was truly concerned about the health risks posed by the 54 pipes spewing lethal bacteria, viruses, and toxic chemicals, she would direct her enforcement division to prepare to lay charges against Saint John and other cities that use the ocean as a flush toilet."

    "Of course this isn't going to happen," commented Janice Harvey, Fundy Baykeeper program director. "Even with a lawsuit, Saint John would need funding help from other levels of government to comply with a clean-up order. And the federal and provincial governments clearly are not prepared to come forward with enough money to make a difference."

    The Fundy Baykeeper claims that what happened last Friday in Saint John, when Prime Minister Harper and Premier Lord failed to deliver on the critical piece of the harbour clean-up – a new sewage treatment plant – indicates clearly how seriously the government takes its own environmental laws.

    "Everything else comes first, before the environment, before even enforcing the law" said Thompson. "Premier Lord clearly wanted the highways package, and that's what Mr. Harper delivered for him. He didn't want any serious money diverted from that to cleaning up the environment. It tells the public environmental laws aren't worth the paper they're written on."

    "Politicians always cite competing demands for funds when justifying where money is or is not spent. But complying with the law shouldn't be an option. It should be an unavoidable obligation and money should be provided without question, without discussion, without trade-offs," added Harvey. "Obeying the law isn't an option for the rest of us. We either do it or pay the consequences. It's disturbing that where the environment is concerned, governments see themselves as above the law – as having the prerogative to obey it or enforce it or not."

    The solution, says Thompson, is to give citizens the right to enforce the law through the courts. "Unlike in the US, citizens in Canada have little recourse when governments break the law or refuse to enforce it. We need an Environmental Bill of Rights in New Brunswick that gives citizens the tools to hold their governments to account when they blatantly refuse to protect or clean up the environment as the law requires."

CONSERVATION COUNCIL OF NB For Immediate Release March 29, 2006

CONSERVATION COUNCIL OF NB
For Immediate Release
March 29, 2006