FEDERAL CONSERVATIVES IGNORE ENVIRONMENT

Yesterday's Waterloo Region Record tells us what most of us already were pretty convinced of. The title is "Canada's environment protections lag behind resource development". Whether "...mining in the North, offshore drilling in the Atlantic and hydraulic fracturing in hundreds of thousands of shale gas wells springing up across the country.", our government are not keeping up environmentally. Similarily regulators are not adequately equipped "to deal with major oil spills or an expected 300% increase in tanker traffic off the West Coast.". These quotes come from a report produced by Scott Vaughan, Canada's Commissioner of the environment and sustainable development.

Further specific problems include two Atlantic offshore petroleum boards that are not ready to respond to major oil spills. The habitat of fragile ocean ecosystems are also at stake. Basically our federal government environmental regulators are being left in the dust of the mad dash towards resource development. Mr. Vaughan rightly believes there should be a cooresponding stepping up of environmental safeguards to offset the worst results of massive Canadian resource development.

It's not nice to understand that our federal environmental regulators are equally as far behind as our provincial ones.