Corporations and polluters could reap the rewards of today's federal Budget and the follow-up legislation, which will weaken the environmental assessment process.

The Budget includes major cuts to Fisheries and Oceans Canada, and eliminates the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy.

The changes to the environmental assessment process explicitly aim to help speed up approval of tar sands pipelines like the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline and Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. This will put the Canadian people at increased risk of oil spills, polluted rivers and fish kills, as well as lost wildlife.

“Energy giant Kinder Morgan had said they would formally submit their application to the National Energy Board to twin their tar sands pipeline by the end of this month, but now they’ve delayed,” said Ben West, the Wilderness Committee's Healthy Communities Campaigner. “It seems to me that Kinder Morgan could be waiting to take advantage of a weakened review process,” said West.

Prime Minister Harper has made it clear that his government wants to ease the approval process for oil pipelines, in the midst of unprecedented levels of opposition against the Enbridge project and other plans to expand tar sands exports. “The federal government has complained for many months about the length of the review process in the case of the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline, and so now it appears set to try and cut back environmental review to make it easier for future projects, like Kinder Morgan’s planned pipeline expansion,” said West.

“We're incredibly concerned that the federal government is gutting environmental protection for the wilderness and wildlife that Canadians cherish,” said Gwen Barlee, Policy Director for the Wilderness Committee, responding to the Budget presented today by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty.

“Private power projects, which do great damage to BC’s wild rivers and fish, could also exploit these changes, as could the proposed New Prosperity Mine project near Fish Lake,” said Barlee. "British Columbians value and will stand up for wild salmon, old-growth forests and clean air and fresh water and it is obvious Ottawa doesn't understand that."

Contact:

Ben West, Healthy Communities Campaigner, Wilderness Committee - (604) 710 5340

Gwen Barlee, Policy Director, Wilderness Committee, 604-683-8220 (w) or 604-202-0322 (c)