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.
In a newly-released letter to the Union of Environment Workers, Ashfield said the existing Fisheries Act, considered to be Canada's strongest environmental protection law, has "long played an important role in preventing pollution of Canadian waters." But he suggested it needed to be changed since it doesn't provide enough options allowing industry to disrupt or contaminate fish habitat.