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Senate releases report on NWPA

by Aaron Pettigrew | June 12, 2009
Earlier this week, the Canadian Senate released a report on the controversial amendments to the Navigable Waters Protection Act that were couched in the 2009 federal budget.
 
I won't pretend that I understand the report in its entirety – I mean, there's some seriously intimidating legal & bureaucratic jargon in there! – but the one part that I think I do understand looks, well, at least okay.
 
According to the report, the Senate is making four recommendations to the federal government, for consideration in amending the NWPA:
  • 1. The committee recommends that Transport Canada develop and implement an effective communication strategy and consultation process to seek the views of waterway stakeholders on any future amendments to the Act, including any changes to regulations, and during the five year review of the Act. 
  • 2. That the Navigable Waters Protection Program develop regulations to replace the Ministerial Order of May 9, 2009. 
  • 3. That Transport Canada amend relevant sections of the NWPA using a process outlined in section 32 of the Canada Shipping Act, 2001 for incorporating reference materials. 
  •  4. That the federal government ensure adequate resources are made available to the Navigable Waters Protection Program so that it can better meet its economic targets for infrastructure development and reduce the delays for larger projects while maintaining its responsibility to protect the public right of navigation.
I can't speak to all of these recommendations, but I can say that the first recommendation looks like a pretty good idea to me. It seems to be the Senate's response to the outcry that concerned citizens raised about the way the government introduced their amendments to the NWPA.
 
The issue, according to many, wasn't that the act shouldn't be updated, but rather that it was being changed without due process (the changes were being snuck into the back pages of a federal budget bill, for Pete's sake!)
 
The Senate report actually puts it pretty nicely:
 
  • "...Many users of waterways recognized the need to modernize the Act. However, some believed that the changes went too far in eroding the public's right to navigation and they were concerned that the amendments diminished the public consultation process, transparency and environmental protection..."
 
Accordingly, the report's first recommendation recognizes the importance of public's claim to consultation on issues related to navigable waters. It's a little vague, but the gist of it – the need to implement effective communication strategies and public consultation processes for these matters – is crucial.
 
Many people and organizations (CPAWS and Lake Ontario Waterkeeper, for example) have raised serious concerns about the proposed changes, but without a consultation process they're having to work very hard to express these concerns to decision-makers.
 
While the Senate's recommendations won't change the fact that the NWPA was amendments were passed in a sneaky way, it does seem that they at least aim to prevent that from happening in the future. And that's good, right?
 
So what does all this mean for our waterways? Well, I don't really know. I'm on the lookout for more informed analysis of the report. In the meantime, keep an eye on CPAWS and Lake Ontario Waterkeeper, two great sources of information on this and many other water/conservation-related topics. (Oh, and if you're interested, you can find the Senate's full report here. Enjoy!)