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D.C. Reid is an experienced fishing guide in British Columbia, writer, and regular columnist for the Victoria Times Colonist. In a recent column he writes

Both the Vancouver Sun and the Times Colonist have run stories recently regarding the federal government's pulling the plug on fish habitat work by eliminating environmental assessments of new and existing projects that impact habitat. There are some 500 projects in B.C. This will have an impact on our roughly 100 million wild salmon that return each year.

Mike de Souza writes that changes to Canada's environmental protection laws in the federal budget implementation bill will offer new tools to "authorize" water pollution, while allowing the government to outsource services to protect the country's waterways, according Fisheries and Oceans Minister Keith Ashfield.

As reported in the Vancouver Sun, the Harper government has announced major cuts to its fisheries habitat protection program, prompting a retired federal biologist to warn Wednesday of a dramatic increase in the risk of environmental damage.

The cuts coincide with Fisheries Minister Keith Ashfield's launch of a public consultation process seeking input on how Canadian fisheries should be managed.

The OURFISH campaign is redoubling its efforts to protect Canada’s natural heritage in the face of budget cuts.  Together we were successful in getting government to restore funding to the Salmonid Enhancement Program.  We built on that success by exposing the decisions of elected officials that have put our natural environment and fish stocks at risk.  With this new website, we hope to continue our work to promote evidence-based decision making, to share knowledge, and spread the values of sustainability of our precious natural resources for generations to come.

Expect a pipeline or a road to be built soon over your favourite fishing spot.  As part of its effort to break down “regulatory barriers” to industrial projects, like pipelines, mining and oil sands, among others, the federal Conservative government plans to remove habitat protection from Section 35 of the Fisheries Act.  Many believe this change will be included in the implementation bill of the recent federal budget.