Hello Mr. Prentice,
I am writing to express my profound concern in the current government’s choices to possibly scrap the Environmental Assessment Act. I am assuming this is due to Mr. Harper’s hope to cut costs amidst this “economic crisis”, but the reality is clear. This would allow projects to possess zero environmental accountability, and any imminent impact would simply be too late to fix properly. One of the many great aspects of EA is its inherent obligation to use the precautionary principle – to study and investigate socio-cultural, environmental, and even cumulative impacts of a given undertaking and provide necessary means to ensure these impacts will not affect future populations. I understand that by scrapping the regulation, this would quickly greenlight more oil sands and more resource extraction projects without much deliberation. But how many pieces of evidence are needed to know that this is clearly a mistake? At the very least, these resources should be extracted at responsible rates where impacts are closely studied. Without regulation this would be even more ignored than it already is! This could have major impacts on potable water, air quality, habitat, and affect species at risk.
I sincerely hope your administration considers your environmental choices seriously. History perpetually points out that cuts and shortcuts lead to disastrous consequences. This will be no different.
Thank you,
Mike Christie
Montreal, QC
