Little protection, potential harm to fisheries: Ottawa
By Karen Kleiss, Edmonton Journal August 31, 2011
EDMONTON - Federal officials and independent experts say Alberta’s plan to protect provincial rivers won’t work, and could even accelerate environmental damage, new documents show.Internal government emails reveal the federal government “disassociated” itself from Alberta’s water conservation plan and quietly sent letters of concern, because its experts believed the province’s plan was “insufficient” to keep rivers healthy.A government-funded consultant’s report said the plan “fails to propose any meaningful measures” to protect aquatic environments, while government scientists predicted it would result in “significant” and “serious” degradation of fisheries.“If you care deeply about our water…you would be very shocked to see how this market-based plan has failed to address the fundamental crisis that’s happening,” said Bill Moore-Kilgannon of Public Interest Alberta.“The government has ignored it for ideological and political reasons — some people stand to make massive amounts of money from this, from selling something they were given for free, something that belongs to Albertans, just like the air.”Government normally keeps such documents secret but they became public when they surfaced in a lawsuit. Moore-Kilgannon obtained them and released them to The Journal.Full article - http://www.edmontonjournal.com/technology/Provincial+rivers+plan+slammed/5332073/story.html
