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Ottawa seldom punishes foresters and companies that destroy fish
MARTIN MITTELSTAEDT ENVIRONMENT REPORTER The Globe and Mail
The NAFTA pollution watchdog released two reports yesterday that found the Canadian federal government is guilty of widespread failures to enforce laws requiring forest companies to protect migratory birds and ensure that their effluent doesn't kill fish.
When North America adopted its free-trade zone, some feared that Mexico would try to gain economic advantages by failing to enforce its environmental laws. But it turns out that Canada isn't averse to trying to help companies by turning a blind eye to violations of pollution laws and wildlife-protection rules.
"Initially, the fear was that it would be Mexico that would be cutting corners on environmental protection to siphon business from the U.S., and now we're seeing quite clearly . . . that Canada, as opposed to being a leader, is being a laggard," said Albert Koehl, a lawyer with the Sierra Legal Defence Fund.
In one case reviewed by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, Ontario companies destroyed an estimated 45,000 nests of migratory birds through clear-cutting during the summer breeding season of 2001. Under bird-protection laws, it's an offence to wreck even a single nest.
CEC investigators asked Environment Canada whether action was taken against companies for this violation of the Migratory Birds Convention Act, but "received no information from Canada indicating that any such action has been taken," according to the report.
The other report found that effluent from pulp and paper mills in Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada was frequently so polluted it killed fish. But Environment Canada almost never prosecuted companies for discharging it.
Environment Canada said no one was available yesterday to comment on the CEC findings.
Under the trade pact covering Canada, Mexico, and the United States, groups and individuals in any of the countries can file complaints to the commission alleging a government is trying to give domestic companies a competitive edge by failing to enforce environmental rules.
The CEC can investigate these complaints and issue a report, known as a factual record, about the validity of the allegations.
The rulings against Canada amount, however, to just a highly public slap on the wrist. The CEC can only publicize failures to uphold environmental laws, but it cannot prosecute countries for legal lapses.
The two reports were dated last June, but made public only yesterday. Environmentalists say the federal government had been opposing their release, but relented after public pressure on Environment Minister John Baird.
The complaint that Canada doesn't uphold its law protecting migratory birds was made by eight Canadian and U.S. conservation groups, including the Sierra Clubs of both countries, Nature Canada and the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, and it covered logging practices in an area of Northern Ontario about the size of California.
The CEC investigation found that while Environment Canada didn't take any legal action against companies for destroying bird nests, it did hold a workshop with the industry to try to encourage it to comply with the law.
Environment Canada also told the CEC that it bases enforcement priorities in part on complaints from the public. However, the CEC noted that Environment Canada did nothing when a member of the public sent letters expressing concern about logging during the migratory bird season in 2001.
In a separate investigation of Environment Canada's response to pollution-laced effluent from pulp mills, the CEC found that the federal government seldom prosecutes companies for discharging waste water so loaded with chemicals that it kills fish, a violation of the Fisheries Act.
Companies reported hundreds of cases over a period from 1996 to 2000 during which their effluent killed fish exposed to it in tests, but these violations led to only a handful of formal charges.
"I think Canadians will find it beyond belief that both the federal and provincial governments rarely prosecute pulp and paper companies when they break the laws," said David Coon, policy director at the Conservation Council of New Brunswick, one of the groups that asked for the CEC investigation into the pulp mills.
According to the CEC report, nine of 10 mills it reviewed in 2000 had effluent that at some point in the year killed fish during exposure tests. Irving Pulp and Paper Ltd., in Saint John had the worst overall record, although most of its problems date to the mid-1990s, before the company completed projects to improve its waste-water treatment.
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