Canada Oceans Act Threatened by
Parliamentary Prorogation
by Leslie Beckmann
Much has happened in the last few months with respect to ocean protection, and CARC has been in the middle of the debate. In December, the Parliamentary Committee on Fisheries and Oceans reported on Bill C-98, the proposed Canada Oceans Act. Although significant improvements were made to the bill during parliamentary hearings, the House of Commons prorogued in February and the fate of the bill is now unclear.
As many members are aware, CARC, in co-operation with a number of other environmental and public-interest groups, has been keenly interested in ocean legislation for some time. Following much hard work and effective lobbying on our part, Bill C-98-the Canada Oceans Act-was introduced into the House of Commons for first reading on 14 June 1995. On 26 September, following Parliament's summer break, the bill was re-introduced for second reading and then turned over to the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans for all-party review and public hearings.
In early September, aware that this public review was in the offing, CARC and other groups hosted a two-day meeting at the Ottawa office of Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. to review the proposed legislation. We brought together a small group of lawyers, scientists, and policy advisers from each coast to help develop recommendations to improve the bill.
CARC presented the result of this workshop-a 35-page brief prepared by Nigel Bankes-to the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans on 26 October 1995. CARC's major recommendations concerned the "vision," or goal, of the legislation to be included in the bill's preamble, the recognition of the rights and interests of aboriginal peoples, timetables and targets for promised strategic planning, and strengthening provisions to establish marine protected areas. The committee was impressed and extremely pleased with our work; indeed, many of our recommendations found their way into the amendments. The result is a very strong bill, capable of safeguarding Canada's three oceans for decades to come.
As well, the CARC/CNF National Marine Conservation
Strategy discussion document has been completed. Entitled Seas
the Dav, it recommends a number of strategic actions Canada and
Canadians can take to ensure conservation and sustainable
development of our oceans. Seas the Day is now available from
CARC.
BHP Review
CARC was instrumental in forming the Northern Environmental Coalition (CARC, Ecology North, Canadian Nature Federation, and World Wildlife Fund Canada) to respond to proposed mineral development in the Slave Geological Province north of Yellowknife. A fourperson panel established under the federal Environmental Assessment and Review Process Guidelines Order has begun an environmental assessment of the diamond mine proposed by BHP Diamonds Inc. The coalition appeared before the panel in spring 1995 to suggest what information the proponent should include in its environmental impact statement. The impact statement was presented to the panel last summer and public hearings into the project began in January 1996.
CARC's full brief to the panel will be featured in a future issue of Northern Perspectives. Our concerns relate to the rights of aboriginal peoples in the area-land-claim and treaty entitlement negotiations are proceeding while the company is seeking permission to construct its mine and related infrastructure. We believe this mine will inevitably lead to others and we are concerned about the impacts of all, not just one. As well, we address the impacts of the proposed diamond mine on caribou and grizzly bears. In keeping with the philosophy of CARC's Northern Minerals Programme, we insist that this development meet the principles of environmental and social sustainability.
Additional mineral development in the North is inevitable.
Unemployment rates are high, particularly in small aboriginal
communities. We want to ensure that mineral development
provides jobs for northerners, particularly aboriginal
northerners, and that a significant percentage of royalty and
taxation revenue generated by mineral development is used in
the North to support the hunting, fishing, trapping, and tourism
and recreation economies.