PABINEAU FALLS – With its monster budget bill, the Conservative government is abandoning the protection of Canada’s navigable waters, said New Democrat MP Yvon Godin (Acadie-Bathurst).
All reference to the environment will be removed from the Navigable Waters Protection Act, reducing the number of protected lakes and rivers to less than a hundred. Even worse: more than 90% of these protected bodies of water are located in ridings represented by Conservative MPs, a situation that casts doubt on the partisanship surrounding these cuts.
“There is no reason to put the environmental protection of waterways on the chopping block,” said Yvon Godin this morning. “Everyone benefits from the current legislation: why change it so radically?”
New Democrats formally oppose this attempt to distort the spirit of the Navigable Waters Protection Act. “We need these environmental protections,” concluded Yvon Godin. “We won’t let the Conservatives destroy them without reacting.”