Cuts coming to Environment Canada: reports
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Environment Canada cuts worry ecology group
Job cuts at Environment Canada will weaken environmental protection in Nova Scotia, the Ecology Action Centre warns. Mark Butler, the centre's policy director, said about 80 jobs will disappear from Environment Canada's Dartmouth office, including jobs related to protecting air and water quality.
"Environment Canada is already down on the ground and bleeding, and this is just another kick to the body," Butler said. "As long as you breathe air and drink water and enjoy nature you should be very concerned about these cuts."
Tony Clement, president of the Treasury Board, said Environment Canada's decision to reduce staff is not part of the Conservative government's initiative to slash billions of dollars from government programs.
Environment Canada cuts worry ecology group - Nova Scotia - CBC News
Job cuts at Environment Canada will weaken environmental protection in Nova Scotia, the Ecology Action Centre warns. Mark Butler, the centre's policy director, said about 80 jobs will disappear from Environment Canada's Dartmouth office, including jobs related to protecting air and water quality.
"Environment Canada is already down on the ground and bleeding, and this is just another kick to the body," Butler said. "As long as you breathe air and drink water and enjoy nature you should be very concerned about these cuts."
Tony Clement, president of the Treasury Board, said Environment Canada's decision to reduce staff is not part of the Conservative government's initiative to slash billions of dollars from government programs.
Environment Canada cuts worry ecology group - Nova Scotia - CBC News
Tony Clement is playing with semantics. If Ottawa says that Environment Canada's budget will be reduced, how do they think EC will cut costs? The legislation granting responsibilities to the department hasn't changed, so they can't cut the programs.
What a douche.
What a douche.
........................and it's hard to hide stuff from the great unwashed when we have the FACTS.
Most tax savings will be siphoned by "honest Steve and the former Ontario Rippers", and WE shall probably not see a whole big pile of savings. Phoney Toney may get another ten mill. or so to spend in his riding.
Environment Canada cuts put public at risk, critics say
“These are deep cuts into programs and services that are indispensable. They need to look at these programs and realize these are public safety questions,” May said, citing water monitoring and changing weather patterns as two examples.
Her complaints were echoed by the Sierra Club, which called the cuts a “blatant attack” on the environment.
“What it will do is give polluters exactly what they want — a toothless, understaffed Environment Canada with weakened scientific capacity and no enforcement capability,” said John Bennett, the organization’s executive director.
But Treasury Board President Tony Clement — whose job is to find $4 billion in annual savings — defended the job cuts, suggesting that the reductions will not affect core services that Canadians count on.
“In terms of what Canadians expect out of Environment Canada — protecting air, protecting water, those kinds of issues — there’s been no diminution,” Clement said Thursday. “And so Environment Canada is open for business, they’re doing their job and they want to do it more efficiently and (with) better results for Canadians.”
Department officials blamed budget constraints for the cutbacks and suggested more reductions could come as part of the Conservatives’ overall effort to rein in the deficit.
“Our intention is to deal with job reductions in the public service as much as humanly possible through attrition,” Clement said. “I can’t give any guarantees. I’ve made that clear,” he said. “But certainly that’s what we would like to do in most or all of the cases.”
Environment Canada cuts put public at risk, critics say - thestar.com
“These are deep cuts into programs and services that are indispensable. They need to look at these programs and realize these are public safety questions,” May said, citing water monitoring and changing weather patterns as two examples.
Her complaints were echoed by the Sierra Club, which called the cuts a “blatant attack” on the environment.
“What it will do is give polluters exactly what they want — a toothless, understaffed Environment Canada with weakened scientific capacity and no enforcement capability,” said John Bennett, the organization’s executive director.
But Treasury Board President Tony Clement — whose job is to find $4 billion in annual savings — defended the job cuts, suggesting that the reductions will not affect core services that Canadians count on.
“In terms of what Canadians expect out of Environment Canada — protecting air, protecting water, those kinds of issues — there’s been no diminution,” Clement said Thursday. “And so Environment Canada is open for business, they’re doing their job and they want to do it more efficiently and (with) better results for Canadians.”
Department officials blamed budget constraints for the cutbacks and suggested more reductions could come as part of the Conservatives’ overall effort to rein in the deficit.
“Our intention is to deal with job reductions in the public service as much as humanly possible through attrition,” Clement said. “I can’t give any guarantees. I’ve made that clear,” he said. “But certainly that’s what we would like to do in most or all of the cases.”
Environment Canada cuts put public at risk, critics say - thestar.com
That man can really let the $hit fly, one of the best. What a lying sack of crap.
I mean they stripped down our food safety, putting it in the hands of the folks like Maple Leaf, and look what happened. I hope Canadians don't have to endure a weather related disaster in similar circumstances.
I mean they stripped down our food safety, putting it in the hands of the folks like Maple Leaf, and look what happened. I hope Canadians don't have to endure a weather related disaster in similar circumstances.
Cuts coming to Environment Canada: reports
Reports are emerging that Environment Canada will soon announce a wave of job cuts that will eliminate hundreds of staff from the department. Environment Canada may be set to send nearly 800 employees out the door, including more than 200 scientists, meteorologists and engineers.
Green leader Elizabeth May says Ottawa is not providing enough details to allay concerns that Environment Canada may be harmed by the cutbacks. "There are too many questions and no good answers regarding this slashing of a critical government department," May said in a statement released Wednesday night.
The Toronto Star, meanwhile, is reporting that senior managers at Environment Canada have told union members that they do not have enough funding to pay for the employees on their payroll.
CTV Ottawa- Union confirms job cuts coming to Environment Canada - CTV News
I don't agree with everything the government is doing, but this is good news. I'm all for government invovlement in society, but only where the private sector could not do just as well or where the service is absolutely essential.
Envirocan is not absolutely essential except for the most basic aspects of its mandate.
Not necessarily. But you could convert envirocan into a private corporation with the board of directors elected 50% by environmental NGOs and 50% by corporations, with the tie-breaking vote going to the chairman who must always be from the industrial side, with all funding coming from the member industries as a membership fee, compulsory for certain categories of industries. This would mean that Envirocan would be 100% funded by private rather than public funding.
Or some other similar arrangement could work too.
Or leave it the way it is, with regulators wearing regulator hats. You think it's wise to wear two hats for something like public health?
Honestly, this obsession with privatization is retarded. I don't mean retarded in the pejorative, I mean it would be a giant step backwards.
I wouldn't trust a drug company like my own or any of a number of other industries to slow down projects if they didn't have to. Hypothetical, new parasiticides. Regulations say that you can't release anything harmful into the environment, but the project leaders in Pharmactics Corp. are screaming to get the project rolling. So instead of finding out if the compounds are harmful before they start their proof of concept work, they go ahead and start testing new compounds they've identified as candidates for a sea lice drug. A few weeks later, the local lobster fishermen are reporting no lobster at all.
Oops. The compound turned out to be an efficient lobster killer. It wrecked an industry, and destroyed an eco-system. That hypothetical could easilly be reality, if project leaders ruled the world.
Regulators have to be arms length...I mentioned Maple Leaf for a reason. Profits, both personal (like good performance evaluations) and the bottom line that executives are concerned with, do not always line up with what is best for everyone else.
More importantly, where's the democracy? If Canadians decide they don't like your hypothetical corporations actions, how do they recall them? Who replaces this corporation? Is there one in the waiting?
You could also put the chairman on the NGO side with the tie-breaking vote, or some other alternative.
As for democracy, it woule be even more democratic than what we have now since citizen-NGOs would have a direct vote on the board of directors. You want a say? Join an NGO. This is not possible under the current structure where the government dictates. Sure it's an elected government, but it would still be nice to have more direct public representation on envirocan.
And then that might not be fair to companies who have done their due diligence.
No, the responsibility should be left in the hands of those who don't have a stake in the matter.