(Part one of a three part series)
What do laundry detergents and the Federal Government’s Bill C-38, passed in 2012, have in common?
They are both highly detrimental to our lakes and streams and the wildlife that live in and around them.
Recent news reports have been dominated by the federal government’s announcement of the withdrawal of funding and/or closure of a number of Canada’s leading environmental research facilities, including the Experimental Lakes Area (ELA) in Ontario and the Polar Environment Atmospheric Research Lab (PEARL) located at Eureka, in Nunavut.
Closure of the ELA research facility in Ontario is a direct result of amendments to the Fisheries Act and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act that were sneaked through last year with the passing of Bill C-38.
Established in 1968, the ELA research facility, is located in a wilderness area between Kenora and Dryden. Over the years it has earned an international reputation for groundbreaking studies in the field of freshwater research. The facility is comprised of 58 small lakes and their watersheds, and has served as a natural laboratory for scientists from around the world where they have been able to study the effects of various pollutants or stressors on freshwater systems. This is where scientists first discovered that phosphates in laundry detergents and other household products were causing lakes to turn green with algae – studies which subsequently led to soap companies having to change the ingredients of their products.
Fisheries and Oceans Canada now, however, says that it wants nothing more to do with the ELA, arguing that the research conducted at the facility no longer fits in with its “core mandate.”
Many of the scientists that have been involved with the research facility are of the opinion that the decision to shut down the ELA has more to do with ideology than economics, and that its closure will do “incalculable damage” to their ability to preserve the quality of this country’s lakes, rivers and streams. (The federal government says that it will save some $2 million by shutting down the facility.)
While Federal Fisheries Minister Keith Ashfield is saying little about the pending closure (March 31) of the ELA, he has gone on record to say: “Our government is currently in the process of negotiations for the transfer of the Experimental Lakes Area to an appropriate third-party stakeholder.” And, while the negotiations are confidential, he adds “we are optimistic there will be positive results.”
Scientists who work in the environmental research field see things differently.
“It’s a complete travesty,” says biology professor John Smol, who holds the Canadian Research Chair on Environmental Change at Queen’s University.
Former ELA director Dr. Schindler began to realized the station was in jeopardy when Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver began referring to environmentalists as “radicals who were trying to destroy the Canadian economy.”
I am not an environmental radical, nor am I trying to destroy the Canadian economy. But I am concerned that if the federal government is prepared to close such an internationally respected research facility in Ontario in order to save a couple of million dollars (at the expense of our freshwater lakes and streams), what is it prepared to do elsewhere in Canada?
When will changes brought about by amendments to the Fisheries Act and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, that are a result of Bill C-38, be coming to British Columbia.
I’ll tackle that question and several others in my next two columns.
