David R. Boyd

A Recipe for Environmental Disaster

Black Thursday was a bad day for many British Columbians who lost jobs or access to government services. It was also an ugly day for Beautiful British Columbia. Unprecedented cuts to the ministries responsible for environmental protection jeopardize the natural beauty and diversity of life that are a source of pride and joy for so many BC residents.

The BC Liberals' recipe for the province's future has three main ingredients--downsizing government, eliminating regulations, and privatizing services. In the field of environmental protection, this is a sure-fire recipe for disaster.

As the judicial inquiry into the contaminated water tragedy in Walkerton, Ontario concluded,

ideologically-driven downsizing, deregulation and privatization were among the causes of the disaster that cost seven lives and hundreds of millions of dollars. Yet the BC Liberals are recklessly moving in the same direction, with even deeper, faster cuts.

Before turning to the bad news, there are some glimmers of hope. The BC Liberals still plan to protect Burns Bog, oppose the Sumas II power project, implement a Living Rivers Strategy, improve legislative protection for drinking water, and create a new biodiversity strategy. But finding the fiscal and human resources to pursue these new initiatives after Black Thursday's massive cuts will require a magic feat worthy of Houdini.

The details of the New Era are surprising to many British Columbians. Cuts to the Ministry of Water, Land and Air and the Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management range from 30 to 40 percent. Over 1000 jobs will be eliminated. These cuts are on top of the 35% already hacked out of the environment budget during the disastrous Glen Clark era. In total, B.C.'s environment budget has tumbled 60 to 70 percent from the early 1990s.

Government environmental experts will no longer review proposals for industrial activities (mining, logging, oil and gas exploration) that impact fish, wildlife and habitat. The new philosophy is "trust industry to do the right thing." It is unclear how this ca n be reconciled with the government's promise to rely on science-based decision-making.

Camping and recreational facilities in some parks will be closed. User fees in parks will go up.

World-leading models of resource management, such as the Central Region Board in Clayoquot Sound and the Muskwa-Kechika board (Northern Rockies) are 'under review'. The Environmental Youth Team program is terminated.

The next step in the Liberal's radical overhaul of environmental protection will involve eliminating one-third of the regulations currently protecting the air, water, forests, and wildlife of British Columbia.

Which regulations will be chopped? The rules governing contaminated sites are being reviewed. Low to medium-risk dumps and landfills will no longer be regulated. Some environmental spills will no longer receive a government response. Rules governing fish-farming will be relaxed, increasing the threat to wild salmon.

The Forest Practices Code will be scaled back dramatically, despite the fact that it was already

weakened by the Glen Clark government. The Forest Practices Board, an independent watchdog, warned that the previous round of rollbacks posed a threat to salmon, endangered species and other environmental values.

Environmental assessment will be 'streamlined'. This process, which is a cornerstone of responsible environmental planning, is reviled by industry because it takes months and sometimes years to gather the environmental data needed to make informed decisions. Streamlining is a clever euphemism for sabotaging the integrity of the process.

Some of the duties previously performed by laid-off environmental experts still must be carried out. Those jobs will in some cases be filled by independent contractors and in other cases by industry itself.

Documents released yesterday state that logging companies will be in charge of the province's timber supply analysis. What are the odds they will find there are more trees in B.C.'s forests than previously counted?

The Ministry of Water, Land and Air will also be relying on the logging industry to identify areas of critical wildlife habitat and to lead recovery strategies for endangered species. These changes go beyond the notorious 'sympathetic administration' practised by the Socreds in the 1980s, when government turned a blind eye to environmental damage caused by the timber industry.

The phrase "industry-led" is repeated over and over in the documents released by the Ministry of Water, Land and Air. Based on industry's track record, the public is understandably skeptical about this approach to environmental protection. The fox is being put in charge of the chicken coop and the Liberals already eliminated the province's environmental watchdog, the Sustainability Commissioner.

The over-riding goal of many of the Liberals' changes is to "provide faster approvals and greater access to Crown land and resources." The rate of logging is supposed to jump. Oil and gas production is supposed to double in six years. More fish farms will be allowed. These goals are fundamentally at odds with improving environmental protection and will lead to increased conflict with First Nations whose Aboriginal rights remain unresolved.

Although the Liberals continue to speak of environmental leadership, their actions prove that

this is absurdly empty rhetoric. In the span of a few short years, British Columbia has gone from a national centre of environmental excellence and innovation to a laggard on par with Ontario, Canada's most polluted province and home of the Walkerton tainted water disaster.

Column by David R. Boyd, associate with the University of Victoria's Eco-Research Chair in Environmental Law and Policy, and an Adjunct Professor in the School of Resource and Environmental Management at Simon Fraser University.