Canada's Environmental Paralysis

David Richard Boyd
  Canada is in the grip of an unprecedented paralysis in environmental policy-making.
  Not since the first Earth Day in 1970 has there been a greater sense of urgency about the need to address environmental problems. Yet the gap between Canada's rhetoric and Canada's actions has never been wider.
  If you believed the federal government, you'd think Canada was an ecological utopia. According to government reports, Canada is "a world leader in sustainability." Canada's "environmental record is among the best in the world." Canada is a "world leader" in "environmentally safe and clean mining practices," sustainable forest management, and pesticide regulation.
  These claims are demonstrably false. More Canadians die every year from air pollution than from homicide. Hundreds of communities must boil their drinking water. One of the most widely used pesticides in Canada, atrazine, turns frogs into hermaphrodites when frogs are exposed to the pesticide at levels commonly found in Canadian drinking water.
  Killer whales on the West Coast and Beluga whales on the East Coast are the world's most toxic mammals because of industrial pollution. Mines operated by Canadian companies have left a legacy of contaminated sites not only in Canada but around the world, from Guyana to the Philippines.
  Canada's forests are being logged faster than ever. Twenty species were just added to Canada's burgeoning list of endangered species. Climate changing greenhouse gas emissions are up 15% since 1990. Thirty-eight of Canada's 39 national parks face serious ecological problems.
  Canada's environmental record has been the subject of scathing critiques not only from environmental groups but from the federal Commissioner for Environment and Sustainable Development, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Auditor General, Parliament's Environment Committee, and the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation. The University of Victoria's Eco-Research Chair in Environmental Law and Policy found that Canada ranks 28th out of 29 industrialized nations on its environmental record. The International Development Research Centre ranked Canada 93rd out of 180 nations on environmental performance.
  Despite the compelling evidence of environmental decline, Canada is failing to take remedial action.
  Why is the federal government unable or unwilling to enact, implement, or enforce environmental laws? There are three possible explanations.
  First, Prime Minister Chretien doesn't care about environmental issues. Journalist Jeffrey Simpson describes Canada as a friendly dictatorship because the prime minister has such a monopoly on power. Prime Minister Chretien used his power to kill at least ten pieces of environmental legislation by calling early elections in 1997 and 2000. The environmental laws that were abandoned and never passed include the Canada Endangered Species Protection Act, the revised Fisheries Act, a law implementing the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the Species at Risk Act, and the Drinking Water Materials Safety Act.
  Prime Minister Chretien's position on the Kyoto Protocol changes more often than the weather. Although Canada signed the U.N. Convention on Climate Change in 1992 and the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, we have done little to fulfill these international commitments to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. Now the Prime Minister is attempting to reopen a done deal, despite the fact Canada already managed to negotiate huge concessions granting us credit for doing nothing but allowing our forests to grow.
  The Prime Minister also bears responsibility for the fate of the star-crossed Species at Risk Act, a proposed law that has been in the works for nine years. Earlier this year, Chretien ordered the Act to be watered down; creating a backbench revolt by Liberal MPs embarrassed by their party's environmental record. The Prime Minister canceled the final vote on the Act in the House of Commons, placing the endangered species bill in legislative limbo once again.
 The second explanation for Canada's environmental paralysis is that Ottawa is letting the provinces call the shots on all matters environmental. The provinces, led by Quebec and Alberta, rabidly oppose any federal action that may constrain the exploitation of provincial natural resources. The provinces oppose the proposed Species at Risk Act, the Kyoto Protocol, and legally enforceable national standards for clean air and water.
  The third reason for Canada's environmental inertia is that the federal government is kowtowing to industry. Ottawa is unabashedly dedicated to creating jobs and economic growth, and is acutely sensitive to claims, however ill-founded, that environmental regulations may interfere with the economy.
  Industry lobbying resulted in the weakening of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act in 1999, long delays in regulating toxic substances, and ineffective voluntary programs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase motor vehicle fuel efficiency.
  Internationally, Canada's reputation as an environmental leader is in tatters. At global negotiations on climate change, forests, and genetically modified organisms, Canada has advocated weaker rules and standards.
  Jean Chretien is Canada's first anti-environmental Prime Minister, on par with U.S. Presidents like Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. There is little hope on the horizon. PM in waiting Paul Martin, once an eloquent spokesperson on environmental issues, has become the invisible man.
  Liberal leadership hopefuls like Allan Rock and John Manley are lined up against the Kyoto Protocol and effective endangered species legislation. The Liberals are making Brian Mulroney's Conservative government look environmentally enlightened.
  At the end of the day, individual Canadians must bear some responsibility for this mess.
  Our profligate consumption of resources is the root cause of most environmental woes, and although we talk the talk of environmental stewardship, we are reluctant to walk the walk.
  After all, it is Canadians who have provided Jean Chretien and the Liberals with three consecutive majority governments, despite their dismal environmental record.
  David R. Boyd is an environmental lawyer, professor, and senior associate with the University of Victoria's POLIS Project on Ecological Governance. Globe & Mail, May 24. Photos courtesy of Richard Probert and Noel Gyger.