In a letter sent to the Union of Environment Workers, Deputy Minister Paul Boothe said that the government was sticking to its decision to dismantle the team in order to save money and transfer resources to a new environmental monitoring plan for the oilsands industry that is expected to cost about $50 million per year.
Environment Minister Peter Kent’s office has repeatedly said that the team of seven employees “is not responsible for emissions monitoring, nor for any enforcement or compliance testing.”
Boothe reiterated this point in his letter, while suggesting that their mandate was to develop, evaluate and analyze testing methods for pollution that also touch upon emissions monitoring, enforcement and compliance testing.
“In working on methods, their results may make contributions to these areas, but it is not the intent of their work,” Boothe wrote in the letter to the union’s president Todd Panas, dated June 21. “Our decision to discontinue these functions remains unchanged.”
Environment Canada was not immediately able to explain exactly what Boothe meant when he referred to “these areas.”
The employees and their union representatives met with Environment Canada management in recent weeks to discuss the cuts, and indicated they were surprised that senior officials didn’t seem to understand the impact of their decisions.
Boothe recognized in his letter that the department had not consulted with its managers and scientists about the cuts “due to cabinet and budget confidentiality.”
Independent scientists from Canadian universities have suggested that the decision to eliminate the team will compromise the quality of data collected from the new oilsands monitoring program as well as the anticipated federal regulations to crack down on pollution from coal-fired electricity plants.
Both the union, academics and opposition critics have suggested that the cuts, including other reductions in research and monitoring of Canada’s air, water, oceans, jeopardize the environmental health of Canadians.
Federal labour unions representing public servants are bracing for a new round of job cuts to be announced this week affecting different government departments including Environment Canada and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
The emerging details also coincide with the release of a letter from federal Fisheries and Oceans Minister Keith Ashfield who wrote that some changes proposed by the government in its budget bill to environmental laws would offer new tools to “authorize” water pollution.
Meantime, details of the $50 million funding arrangement for the new oilsands monitoring program have not yet been confirmed.
The main oil and gas industry lobby group questioned last summer whether its companies should pay for the new monitoring of air, water and wildlife surrounding their industrial activities in the oilsands region, but later indicated that they would finalize a deal to pay the costs by the end of June.
Boothe announced last week that he would retire from the public service in July to return to academic work after nearly eight years in various senior positions in government, including two “challenging” years at Environment Canada.
Kent said that Boothe, a former professor of economics from the University of Alberta, was “headhunted” by the University of Western Ontario.
Original Article
Source: canada.com
Author: Mike De Souza
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