Draft and final versions of a communications plan for last February's announcement about improved environmental monitoring of the industrial sector that exploits natural bitumen deposits in Western Canada show someone in Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government wanted to delete a pledge to ensure the "environmentally sustainable development" from a list of key public messages.
"The oilsands represent a significant, long-term economic benefit for all Canadians," said a deleted portion of the communications plan, released through access to information legislation. "That being said, the oilsands must be developed in a sustainable manner."
The final communications plan promoted only the "environmentally responsible" development of the oilsands, a non-renewable resource, in its key messages.
"The oilsands are a strategically important resource for Canada," said one of the "key messages" from the final plan. "The Governments of Canada and Alberta are proud to continue working together to ensure that the resource is being developed in an environmentally responsible manner."
Pollster Darrell Bricker, the CEO of Ipsos Public Affairs, said that, in some ways, "responsible" is a more powerful word since it relates to the attitude of stakeholders and decision makers as opposed to "sustainable" that refers to outcomes.
"The word 'sustainable' is probably one of the most overused terms in politics and public policy these days and it's the kind of thing that people have been saying since the 1990s," said Bricker in an interview. "So looking for a new word is probably not such a bad thing — a new word that they can brand as being associated with their particular position or particular policy."
While some references to "sustainable development" still appear on government websites and in its oilsands monitoring plan, the promotion of "responsible" development has expanded into the federal government's branding of its 2012 budget and supporting legislation that weakens, repeals and changes existing Canadian environmental protection laws.
When asked to explain the difference between "sustainable" and "responsible" development, the office of Environment Minister Peter Kent noted the concept of sustainable development was enshrined in Canadian laws, while it considered "responsible resource development" to be a plan to create jobs and prosperity while strengthening environmental protection for future generations.
Kent's office also noted that a new law included in the government's budget bill would "encourage" federal authorities to take action to promote sustainable development.
The expression — "responsible development" — is also used by the Pembina Institute, an Alberta-based environmental think-tank, as well by major oil and gas industry companies such as Imperial Oil, Nexen, Suncor and Total E&P Canada.
"We don't say the oilsands are sustainable because they are a non-renewable resource," said Nathan Lemphers, a senior policy analyst at the Pembina Institute. "Our definition of responsible is significantly different from what's proposed in the federal budget."
The concept of "sustainable development" emerged following a 1987 United Nations report called "Our Common Future" that was prepared by a commission led by former Norway prime minister Gro Harlem Brundtland.
The report said "humanity has the ability to make development sustainable to ensure that it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." It provided the basis for major international environmental agreements reached at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to protect biodiversity and crack down on heat-trapping pollution linked to global warming.
Kevin Timoney, an Alberta-based scientist who specializes in studying the ecology of wetlands, suggested that the government's language reflects its attitude toward resource development.
"In essence, it seems the Harper government is abandoning all pretence of sustainability," said Timoney. "Responsible development (as a concept) is sufficiently vague as to be meaningless. It may signal a change in policy from paying lip service to environmental concerns to open hostility toward the environment."
The communications strategy for the government's oilsands monitoring announcement also recommended that the environment minister publicly promote the event on the Internet through his Twitter account by announcing he was "on his way to Alberta to make an important announcement," and that he post a link after the event to an online news release about the plan.
Both tweets are among only three messages that Kent has posted on his Environment Canada Twitter account since February.
The monitoring plan is supposed to introduce new "world-class" surveillance of the oilsands industry, in partnership with the provincial government and companies.
Some independent scientists have warned recently-announced budget cuts affecting Environment Canada researchers, among other factors, could compromise the quality of new data collected, but the federal government has rejected these concerns.
Original Article
Source: canada.com
Author: Mike De Souza
No comments:
Post a Comment