Canada Hiding Adverse Environmental Reports

Canada Hiding Adverse Environmental Reports





    
 
January 2007  - The 
findings of two international investigations into Canada's 
enforcement of its own environmental laws have not been made 
public because they would be embarassing for the Canadian 
government, according to Sierra Legal, an environmental law 
firm based in Toronto. The firm represents environmental 
groups that submitted complaints triggering the 
investigations. 
The investigations were conducted by the Commission for 
Environmental Cooperation, CEC, the environmental agency 
established under the North American Free Trade Agreement 
between Canada, the United States and Mexico. 
They focused on the destruction of tens of thousands of 
migratory bird nests in Ontario's forests and the discharge of 
toxic effluent from Canadian pulp and paper mills. 
"Whatever happened to Prime Minister [Stephen] Harper’s 
commitment to transparency and accountability?" asked Albert 
Koehl, a lawyer with Sierra Legal, which represents Canadian 
and American groups that requested the investigations. 
The decision on whether to release CEC investigations is made 
jointly by the environment ministers of Canada, the United 
States, and Mexico, but Koehl claims it is the Canadian 
government that is "hiding" the results of these 
investigations. In practice, he says, Canada is the lead party 
in decisions relating to the release of this information. 
Sierra Legal attorney Albert Koehl is seeking the results of 
investigations conducted by NAFTA's environmental watchdog 
agency. (Photo courtesy Sierra Legal) 
"I can’t think of any justification for the government’s 
conduct in keeping the findings of these investigations from 
the public," said Koehl, a former Ontario Ministry of 
Environment prosecutor. 
The two investigations were completed in March 2006 and 
involve alleged failures to enforce the Migratory Birds 
Convention Act and the Fisheries Act. 
The migratory birds case involved evidence of a widespread 
failure to enforce the law against logging companies thereby 
allowing the destruction of 45,000 migratory bird nests 
annually in Ontario alone. 
The fisheries case implicated pulp and paper mills in massive 
discharges of toxic effluent to Canadian lakes and rivers. 
Canada’s new environment minister, John Baird, is the lead 
official on investigations targeting Canada. Baird took office 
January 2007, replacing the previous minister Rona Ambrose, 
who was minister in 2006 when the investigations were 
completed. Baird has been silent on the issue. 
CEC investigations are supposed to be released to the public 
within 60 days. All previous investigations have been 
released. 
"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," said Koehl. 
Canada could decide never to release the findings of these two 
investigations, but to do so, permission from the United 
States and and Mexico would be needed. These governments might 
approve such a withholding in return for Canada's future 
approval of withholding reports embarassing to them. 
Koehl says "playing politics" like that would weaken the 
credibility of the CEC and undermine the commission's work on 
other cases before it. 
A pulp mill in Ontario, not one of those at issue in this 
case. (Photo courtesy Terrace Bay) 
In the fisheries case, originally filed with the CEC in 2002, 
environmental groups Friends of the Earth Canada, Union 
Saint-Laurent, Grands Lacs, Conservation Council of New 
Brunswick, Ecology Action Centre, and Environment North 
documented over 2,400 violations of the 1992 Pulp and Paper 
Effluent Regulations, PPER, at mills in central and eastern 
Canada from 1995 to 2000. They claim very few were prosecuted. 

They claim that low numbers of prosecutions correlate with 
continuing high numbers of violations in Quebec and the 
Atlantic Provinces, and they cite 10 mills of particular 
concern. 
In Ontario, the groups claim that there have been more 
prosecutions and fewer violations, but they list two mills 
where they claim Canada has failed to effectively enforce the 
PPER. 
The groups conclude that Canada is failing to meet its stated 
policy to seek to ensure compliance in the shortest possible 
time with no re-occurrence of violations, as well as its 
stated commitment to fair, predictable and consistent 
enforcement. They assert that for years, certain mills have 
been "free riders" at the expense of their competitors and the 
environment. 
Effluent produced by the manufacture of pulp for papermaking. 
Regulations enacted in 1992 control the discharge of "acutely 
lethal effluent" and other substances and stipulate technical 
and reporting requirements. (Photo courtesy Environment 
Canada) 
In its response, Canada provided the CEC with detailed 
information regarding federal and provincial enforcement 
responses taken from 1995 to 2000 in regard to the four 
Atlantic Provinces mills, six Quebec mills and two Ontario 
mills for which the groups state they have particular concern. 

In view of these submissions, the CEC Secretariat decided to 
develop a "factual record," in the case, the results of which, 
Sierra Legal complains, have not been made public. 
In the logging case, originally filed with the CEC in 2002, 
environmental groups Canadian Nature Federation, Canadian 
Parks and Wilderness Society, Earthroots, Federation of 
Ontario Naturalists, Great Lakes United, Sierra Club (United 
States), Sierra Club of Canada, and the Wildlands League, 
claim that in the year 2001 clearcutting activity destroyed 
over 85,000 migratory bird nests in areas of Central and 
Northern Ontario. 
They allege that Environment Canada, through its Canadian 
Wildlife Service, is primarily responsible for enforcing the 
Migratory Birds Convention Act, MBCA, but that no action has 
been taken to enforce section 6(a) of the act against logging 
companies, logging contractors and independent contractors. 
The groups assert that this failure to enforce the law, in 
addition to the harmful impact on the migratory bird 
population, has negative consequences for wildlife 
biodiversity, tourism, respect for the law, fair competition 
within the logging industry and healthy wood stocks. 
Listed as a Species at Risk, the hooded warbler, Wilsonia 
citrina, is a neotropical migrant that flies from the forests 
of southern Ontario, where it breeds in summer, to the forests 
of Central America and the Caribbean, where it spends the 
winter. (Photo by M.K. Peck courtesy Environment Canada) 
In response, Canada told the CEC that, "Environment Canada's 
Wildlife Enforcement Branch has not made a sweeping policy 
decision not to enforce subsection 6(a) of the MBR with regard 
to logging operations." 
The response states that priorities for wildlife enforcement 
are set on an annual basis in response to public complaints, 
international commitments, and wildlife conservation goals. 
The response indicates that "In the forestry context, an 
enforcement approach that will be helpful to migratory bird 
conservation over the long term first requires compliance 
promotion and education among industry, particularly 
decision-makers." 
Canada said compliance promotion activities were underway and 
that the Canadian Wildlife Service would investigate any 
complaints that were made directly to the agency. 
The government asked that a factual record not be initiated, 
but the CEC Secretariat decided to develop a factual record 
anyway. That investigation was completed in June 2006, but 
Sierra Legal complains that the results have not been made 
public. 
"We can't think of any reason why Mexico or the U.S. would 
prevent the release of these reports," Koehl said. "The 
investigations are to the benefit of the U.S. and Mexico since 
the allegation is that Canada is not enforcing its own 
environmental laws, thus securing a trade advantage." 
"Ultimately," he said, "that's why we have the environmental 
watchdog, to prevent any of the parties from sacrificing their 
own environment to get a trade advantage."