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Water Quality Calls
The review of the U.S.-Canada Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement stands in suspended animation for about six months while the review organizers, a Canada-U.S. committee of the federal environmental agencies and other key players around the lakes, take stock of developments so far.
Since the basin community is basically just waiting for the next stage of the review – public comment on draft review documents – Great Lake United decided it would host a series of conference calls in early February to update the public on what was going on.
Anybody was invited to come onto the calls, which outlined the review process and summarized the draft review documents, recommendations by four basin environmental groups in a recent report, and recommendations by the official Agreement watchdog, the International Joint Commission. We concluded the calls with an outline of Great Lakes United’s plan for further work on the review during the rest of the year, and opened the floor to anybody on the line to describe what they might be planning to do.
Nearly a hundred people attended the three calls, which provided the same material at three different times of day. Participants described a few educational activities that they’d wished to conduct in the runup to the comment period and many pledged to provide comment to the government when the time comes. However, virtually no groups other than Great Lakes United had any plans to organize participation in the comment period or the review. We are hoping that basinwide organnizational involvement will increase in coming months.
The developments in the review so far are straightforward:
1) The federal governments created an “Agreement Review Committee” in late 2005 to guide a process for reviewing the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, with very substantial public involvement.
2) In April 2006 this “ARC” set up ten review groups, open to anyone, from environmentalists to industry, to look at various sections of the Agreement, review performance to date, and recommend changes.
3) Right on schedule the review groups - nine at the end of December and the tenth, dealing with governance issues, at the end of January – finished their reports.
The ARC will review the reports, possibly tinker with them, but supposedly not substantially, and pass them up the line to a key body called the Binational Executive Committee, a collection of federal agencies with responsibility for implementing the Agreement, but in the end a body dominated by Environment Canada and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
After reviewing the complete document given them by the ARC, the BEC has pledged to release it for public comment, probably in May or June of this year.
Great Lakes United will be supporting public participation before and during the comment period and will monitor developments in the review thereafter, including the activities of the various key bodies, such as the Binational Executive Committee mentioned above.
In the meantime, the reports of the working groups and substantial related information can be accessed at www.speakongreatlakes.org. But, be warned: the reports are dense and often poorly organized, with important recommendations sometimes not mentioned in either the executive summary or the summary of recommendations.
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The Environment: Most Important Problem?
Federal politicians in Canada have grabbed the environment portfolio by the roots and show no sign of letting go. It is a wonder if five months ago anyone could have predicted just how important this issue would be to the life of the current government, and the strategic position of the opposition parties.
When Liberal Party of Canada members elected Stéphane Dion, the former Environment Minister, to be leader of their party the environment suddenly became an issue of increased relevance. Now it is the single issue that has captivated politicians and pundits.
The news media have elbowed into the fray. In late January the Globe and Mail announced that 2007 would be “our year of going green.” To kick this year off, they began a continuing series, “The New Climate”, an in-depth exploration of climate change and global warming.
Political prognosticators have donned their tinfoil hat, shined their crystal ball, and channelled the ghost of past minority governments in an attempt to predict when the next election will be called. Some think the next budget, due out in just a matter of weeks, will fail, prompting Canadians to go to the polls. Others believe the current government will survive into the fall of 2007. A strong majority predict a late March election call. Regardless of timing, most are confident that unless the environment can be “de-fanged”, it will be the core issue of any future election.
But, is it the environment that has mesmerized politicians? Or, is it climate change and global warming? While other environmental issue have followed in the wake of the climate change wave, it is Kyoto commitments, carbon taxes, greenhouse gas emission standards and the like that are grabbing the headlines.
When this flurry of environmental concern dissipates, where will that leave those other issues that have been trying to gain some increased attention?
For Great Lakes United, the question is more specific: while climate change is a tremendous threat to the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River, other issues are absolutely critical as well. Where do issues like Great Lakes restoration, the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, invasive species, and clean production stand? Is there enough room on the table of public debate for these priority issues as well? What will it take to carve out some space?
On this, we want to know what you think. Have you been able to garner greater exposure to your issue? How so?
Visit www.glu.org/english/issuespoll.htm and let us know what you have done to embed Great Lakes Issues in the hearts and minds of the public.
The results of this survey will be posted in the next issue of Between Editions – so take the survey and keep an eye on your inbox in March!
Take our survey:
http://www.glu.org/english/issuepoll.htm
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Liquid Soul Concert Rescheduled
Great Lakes United and Great Lakes Aid are excited to announce that Liquid Soul will be entertaining Cleveland for a Great Lakes benefit concert.
The Grammy-nominated group will be playing their unique brand of jazz-funk on March 24 at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Set on the shores of Lake Erie, historically one of the basin’s most troubled lakes, the show will be a night of extraordinary music to raise funds to protect and restore the Great Lakes.
Liquid Soul honed their style in the jazz underground of Chicago, a mere stone’s throw from Lake Michigan. After quickly growing beyond that tight scene in the early 1990s, they have evolved to become a musical compendium of sounds and styles that start with jazz and embrace hip-hop, R&B, dance, funk, techno, world, and spoken-word.
Now, having crisscrossed the North American jazz festival circuit, opened for Sting, and crashed into the minds of audiences across the world, Liquid Soul comes to Cleveland to press the need to protect the Great Lakes and the communities that they support.
A premier act that plays with style and intensity, they are visiting the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame to showcase their talent and to rally the spirit of the basin to save the Great Lakes.
Tickets cost $25 and are on sale right now at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame box office, at any Ticketmaster location, or online at www.ticketmaster.com. Seating is limited so get your tickets early!
All proceeds of the event go toward the restoration and protection of the Great Lakes.
For more information visit www.glu.org/liquidsoul.
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Throw Back Bill C-45
The Canadian federal government is poised to repeal and replace the Fisheries Act with Bill C-45, a piece of legislation that causes more harm than good.
Bill C-45 was introduced in December, 2006 and is intended to conserve and sustainably manage Canada’s fisheries and fish habitat. In reality, it does the opposite. The Bill focuses on economies over ecosystems, limits public involvement in fisheries development, is riddled with loopholes and weak language, and fails to state any clear environmental standards.
While an updated and more effective Fisheries Act is needed, Bill C-45 is not it. The Fisheries Act is one of the few pieces of Canadian legislation that mandates some protection for oceans, clean water, and fish habitats. Bill C-45 would weaken an archaic but still very useful act.
The bill was introduced into the House of Commons without meaningful consultation with environmentalists, First Nations, many sectors of the fishing industry, and other interested stakeholders. In fact, Department of Fisheries and Oceans senior habitat management officials expressly refused a request from environmental organizations to review and comment on the bill before it was tabled.
If Bill C-45 passes second reading any opportunity to make substantial revisions will be lost. The Conservative government plans to introduce the bill for second reading in mid-February. If passed, it is handed to the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans, who will prepare the Bill for third reading. The committee is not tasked with evaluating the fundamental approach the Act takes, nor the potentially different ways in which sustainable fisheries management in Canada might better be achieved.
Great Lakes United and other environmental groups are united in calling on the Conservative government to withdraw this bill before second reading and create a Fisheries Act that will take into consideration the current crisis in our oceans, lakes, and rivers and provide a legacy for future generations that we can be proud of.
We urge you to contact your local Member of Parliament and tell them why Bill C-45 should be withdrawn.
Click here to read an MP briefing document.
To view the bill visit:
http://www2.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?Docid=2604605&file=4
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Accounting for Self-Regulation
Congratulations are owed to Great Lakes United coalition member, Sierra Legal Defence Fund. After the Canadian government suppressed reports outlining its own failure to enforce pollution regulations, Sierra Legal has successfully pressured the government into releasing the information.
The two reports by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) outline Canada’s failure to enforce regulations to prevent pollution from pulp and paper mills in Quebec as well as logging activities that violate of the Migratory Birds Act.
The next step is ensuring the Canadian government enforces the regulations that the two reports make clear are being ignored.
In late January, Sierra Legal, working on behalf of the Great Lakes United coalition and several other groups, publicly admonished the Canadian government for preventing the release of the reports. In a release, Albert Koehl, a lawyer with Sierra Legal said, “it’s a shame that the government isn’t allowing the valuable information from these investigations to be put to use to better protect our nation’s lakes and rivers and its treasured wildlife.”
Within a week of the Sierra Legal’s release, the Council of the CEC directed the CEC to release the reports.
In the case of the pulp and paper mill effluent, the report shows that during 2002 mills in eastern Canada regularly ignored pollution regulations. And though these regulations have been in place since 1992, the government has done nothing to enforce the law.
The second report, covering the year 2001, outlines how logging in Ontario may have destroyed upwards of 45,000 migratory birds nests. Such logging took place without the necessary approval to log where migratory birds nest. Similar to the mill case, an unenforced regulatory framework contributed to the damage.
Taken together, the reports are evidence of the failures of self-regulation and the poor integration of federal and provincial responsibilities.
It is clear that the only way to hold the government accountable is through the vigilance of an engaged public. Protecting and restoring the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River is a difficult task, but through cooperation and hard work change will happen. Kudos to Sierra Legal Defence Fund.
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Great Lakes Tipline
If there has been significant activity in your part of the basin, or if your organization has progress to report, we want to hear about it! If you have a story that you'd like to pitch to Great Lakes News, drop us an e-mail at greatlakesnews@glu.org.
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