BLOG (Karen Bringleson): Thibeault’s Waterway Protection Bill: If it will never get passed, why is it so important?

Ramsey Lake, a drinking water source, is not included on the list of waterways in the new Navigation Protection Act, nor are any of Greater Sudbury's many other lakes and waterways (Photo by Naomi Grant)

Last week, Sudbury MP Glenn Thibeault submitted a Private Member Bill to reinclude 19 of Sudbury’s lakes and rivers in a short list of waterways covered by the new federal Navigation Protection Act (NPA).  Private member bills rarely receive passage in the House of Commons so it is almost guaranteed this bill will die. 

So what’s the point?  Why did Mr. Thibeault go to all the bother of “extensive public consultations” and soliciting “feedback from constituents” to come up with a list of lakes that we wish could be protected but don’t really have a hope of ending up on that list?  What can be accomplished by all this effort and why is it so important to go through the process?

Greater Sudbury contains in excess of 330 lakes - more than any other municipality in Canada.  Local lakes, rivers and creeks make up more than 12% of our city’s area.  If you fly over the Sudbury region, it often looks more like pieces of land amid the water than a landmass with lakes and rivers running through it.  Our waterways are an integral part of our lives, our environment and our local economy.  They are important to us for recreation, beauty, enjoyment, a healthy environment, local and tourist dollars, and most importantly they provide us with safe drinking water. 

Since 1882, every waterway in Canada that could float a canoe has been covered by the Navigable Waters Protection Act.  The NWPA was enacted by Parliament to protect our rights to navigate our waterways without interference from developments like pipelines, dams and bridges.   It didn’t matter how much navigation occurred on the waterway.  If a lake or river passed the “float a canoe” test, it was navigable and covered by the Act.  Ensuring that our navigable waterways are protected for today and for the future is the responsibility of our Federal government as set out in our Constitution.

So, over the last 130+ years, if someone wanted to dam the Vermillion River or put a pipeline across a section of Ramsey Lake, there was a federal process in place to ensure the project didn’t interfere with navigation.  The project proponent would apply to the Minister of Transportation and give one month’s public notice.  If the Minister approved, this would trigger a federal Environmental Assessment.  This process guaranteed the public an opportunity to participate even if the Minister thought the project did not substantially interfere with navigation. 

The NWPA did more than ensure navigation.  It was an environmental law that essentially protected the health of our waterways as well.  Ecojustice says the “NWPA has consistently served as a federal tool to achieve environmental protection”.  The Supreme Court has agreed, saying that the NWPA has “a more expansive environmental dimension.” 

Starting in 2009, through legislation tucked away in a series of enormous omnibus budget bills, the Harper government began to dismantle the Navigable Waters Protection Act.  The stated purpose was to reduce red tape so that small projects like cottage docks and large projects like pipelines could move along more quickly.  It went far beyond that.

Some of the changes are already in place, but here’s what we will be left with once Bill C-45 is fully implemented early next year.  The Navigable Waters Protection Act (NWPA) has been replaced by the Navigation Protection Act (NPA) which only protects navigation, and not water, as the new name suggests.  The environmental protection aspect of the Act is gone entirely.  Transport Canada documents have previously said that one of the NWPA’s goals was to ensure the “protection of the environment”.  The website now says the new changes are to reflect the “historic intent” of the original Act, navigation, not environmental protection.  Funny how things change.

The “float a canoe” rule went out with the old Act, so that, according to Minister of Transport, Denis Lebel, government can “focus Transport Canada’s resources on the country’s most significant waterways”.  There is now a short list of waterways which will continue to enjoy navigation protection only.  It is a very short, very strange list with more than 99% of lakes and rivers excluded, some very large waterways among those exclusions.  There are also some truly odd inclusions.  The new NPA has some other bizarre and troubling changes as well.  For example, the National Energy Board is now responsible for approving pipelines and power lines in the vicinity of waterways, not the Ministry of Transportation.

Projects on waterways that did not make the list will never trigger a Federal Environmental Assessment.  Never.  There is also no requirement for public notification of projects on these lakes and rivers.  Project proponents do have the choice to opt into the approval process but it is not required. 

So, how many of Sudbury’s waterways made the list and still have some limited protection from uncontrolled development?  Zero.  Zero out of 330 lakes.  Zero rivers.  Zero creeks.  None.  That leaves us with a patchwork of provincial laws and municipal bylaws and no legislation related to navigation because that is under federal jurisdiction.  This legislation matters to Sudbury.

Getting our waterways back on the list though, is not the most important aspect of Glenn Thibeault’s Bill.  It is extremely unlikely to pass and being on the list doesn’t return the environmental protections anyway.  There have already been 26 similar reinclusion Bills from MPs all over the country, including one from Nickelbelt MP Claude Gravelle.

Awareness is what this is really about.  Canadians need to understand what we have lost.  The federal environmental protections provided by the Navigable Waters Protection Act are gone.  The onus is now on environmental groups, municipalities and citizens to protect our waterways from uncontrolled development.  The arena for fighting dangerous projects is now our court system.  We will not know about many of these projects in advance and it is unlikely that we will have the necessary resources to argue if they need to be changed or stopped.

This legislation only benefits large companies with large projects, not people and not waterways.  Indeed, it may even create problems for proponents of large projects because rather than dealing with potential objections up front, they will have the spectre of costly and time consuming lawsuits hanging over new projects.

This dismantling of our environmental protections was slipped under the radar, hidden in hundreds of pages of “budget” Bills.  There was no Parliamentary debate.  The details have been made easy to miss.  Mr. Thibeault and Mr. Gravelle understand the implications.  They are not naïve enough to think their Bills would pass.  Our MPs are protecting our interests in Parliament the best way they can, under a majority government that has side-stepped democratic process but they can’t be successful without the loud backing of their constituents.   

This is a call to action.  Our MPs are trying to get us to listen, and to talk about it and to do something about it.  If we don’t listen and we don’t act, we have made a choice.  We have decided that the hundreds of waterways in our city don’t matter enough for us to speak up. 

We still live in a democracy so there are lots of ways we can make government move in a direction that protects the things we value.  If you think our lakes and rivers matter and you are worried about this legislation, talk to others about it.  Call, email or write Glenn Thibeault or Claude Gravelle and let them know you support their efforts on your behalf.  Contact the Minister of Transportation, the Minster of the Environment or the Prime Minister’s office.  Write a letter to the editor of one of the local papers.  Join an environmental group or attend an event that focuses on the environment. 

Above all, speak with your vote.  We will have a federal election in 2015.  Governments tend to count on us forgetting the things we were angry about a year or two before elections.  Get informed.  Stay informed.  Speak out.  Vote.