Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Monday, April 09, 2012

Feds kill NRTEE, opposition critics say it’s ‘peanuts’ in savings

The National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy’s $5-million budget is “peanuts” in terms of savings for the federal government’s coffers, say opposition MPs who believe eliminating the advisory board means Canada will be “less equipped” to deal with the biggest challenges facing the country.

“This is not an expensive ticket. They could’ve gone to the round table and said you’ve got $5.2-million, next year you’re going to have $4.2-million and we’re going to give you three very important tasks to fulfill. We want your advice on one, two and three. It better be hard, it better be objective,” said Liberal MP David McGuinty (Ottawa South, Ont.), who worked at NRTEE for nine years before entering elected politics. “All the evidence has been confirmed, just when it comes to climate change you either pay now, or you pay 1,000 times more later. Just from an economic perspective, from a money management perspective, this is foolish talk on their part. But it’s not about efficiencies. It’s about eliminating dissenting voices.”

Mr. McGuinty, a former president of the NRTEE, told The Hill Times last week the premise for the round table was to give independent, non-partisan, consensus-based advice to the federal government. The advisory body was founded in 1988 in the lead up to the Rio Earth Summit, and Governor General David Johnston was its founding chair. In 1993, the NRTEE was established as a permanent body through legislation passed by Parliament.

Mr. McGuinty said some of the achievements accomplished while he was the round table’s head included greening government operations and greening the budget by helping the government to make decisions with an eye on sustainable development.

For five years in a row, he said, the budget named the NRTEE’s recommendations which the government later implemented, or referenced the round table and gave it instructions to further research initiatives. By announcing that it would eliminate the NRTEE completely in the recently-released budget, Mr. McGuinty said the Conservatives are “recklessly avoiding dealing with the environment and economy interface,” which is “very irresponsible” of any federal government.

“It’s beyond negligent. That’s what we’re going to be left with here, a government that is devoid of environmental capacity, doesn’t want to talk about it, isn’t dealing with it,” he said. “It means that Canada’s going to be less equipped to deal with the big, big challenges that are coming and that are already here. … It means we’re just not going to have a place that’s actually looking at this at 10,000 feet from the crow’s nest where it should be looked at.”

NDP MP Nathan Cullen (Skeena-Bulkley Valley, B.C.) also said if the government was looking for ‘efficiencies’ for an austerity budget, it could’ve found $5-million elsewhere. “You don’t even get a coffee cup holder in one of these F-35s for that kind of money. It’s totally about priorities,” Mr. Cullen said last week. “It’s declared anyone who cares about the environment an enemy of the state, so this is a natural conclusion. ‘If you’re an enemy of this government, we’re not only going to not only not fund the ideas but we’re going to attack you at every turn.’ The only money in the budget was for attacking environmental groups. … It’s pretty atrocious.”

Green Party Leader Elizabeth May (Saanich-Gulf Islands, B.C.), who also previously sat as a member and vice-chair of the National Round Table on the Environment and Economy, agreed, saying that the government has spent money on other initiatives which perhaps could have been scrapped before the NRTEE.

“They’ve just announced $8-million to the CRA to harass environmental groups. The round table’s entire budget is $5-million. They spent $5-million this year on the 100th anniversary of the Calgary Stampede. They spent $5-million this year on the 100th anniversary of the Grey Cup. They are really poorly placed to claim that $5-million is a cost they can’t absorb,” she said. “There was once a time when governments used to think. There was once a time when Cabinets considered advice from anyone other than the voice in the Prime Minister’s head. That time is gone [and they’re saying] we no longer need the Round Table.”

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty (Whitby-Oshawa, Ont.) tabled his $255-billion budget last Thursday showing spending will be reduced by $5.2-billion over the next three years.

In addition to “streamlining” the environmental review process, Environment Canada has cut its budget by $88-million over the next three years, while the Department of Fisheries and Oceans will see its budget cut by $79-million over the same time period. The NRTEE’s budget will be cut by $200,000 this year, and completely eliminated by the end of the 2012 fiscal year.

“While the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy filled an important need in the past, a mature and expanded community of environmental policy stakeholders has demonstrated the capacity to provide analysis and policy advice for the government of Canada,” the budget document states. “As a result, the government will introduce legislation to eliminate the NRTEE. Environment Canada will continue to offer effective programs to protect Canada’s natural environment.”

In addition to regulatory reforms and budget cuts, the budget for 2012-2013 also amends the Canadian Revenue Agency Act to prevent registered charities from engaging in political activities and working against the “national interest.”

The changes follow a recent Senate inquiry spearheaded by Conservative Senator Nicole Eaton on foreign donations to Canadian charities being used for political activism, particularly environmental activism aimed at opposing projects such as the Keystone XL and Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline projects.

Ms. May said the quality and consensus-based advice will be lost to Canada’s detriment.

“The whole point of the round table was to engage business leaders with trade unions and environmental groups and First Nations, so there’s no other place. There’s no other forum in which those groups work together to develop advice to government. It’s simply absurd. There’s no place,” she told The Hill Times. “Peter Kent can say he can find it on the internet but I challenge him to find any websites that engage decision-making processes from multi-stakeholder decision-making based on a consensus model. They just killed it.”

In response to questions about the NRTEE’s elimination, Environment Minister Kent (Thornhill, Ont.) said that it is not needed anymore.

“The reality is that the round table was created a quarter of a century ago. It was created before the internet, when there were few such sources of domestic, independent research and analysis on sustainable development. That is simply no longer the case,” he said last week in the House. “There is a plethora, in fact, of groups and organizations across academia, across business, even many NGOs, domestic as well as international, that do have today the scientific and research capacity which did not exist broadly when the national round table was created. Our government has thanked the round table for its decades of work and we are committed to an orderly, considerate wind-down of the organization.”

Conservative MP Michelle Rempel (Calgary Centre North, Alta.) told The Hill Times last week that opposition criticism is inaccurate. She said the government has moved to create policy which protects both the environment and the economy.

“As legislators we have a responsibility to review programs on an ongoing basis to ensure they’re effective and that we’re making best use of taxpayer resources but also to carry out our mandate. I think our government has a very strong track record, certainly in the environment portfolio, with things like the chemical management plan or new waste water regulations and our sector by sector regulatory approach to greenhouse gas emissions,” she said.

Additionally, Ms. Rempel said that there is “a diverse set of research groups,” universities and think-tanks that have praised the government’s investment in research. “Our government is funding research and development at near record levels,” she said. “I think that criticism is inaccurate because our government is promoting innovation and wants to see economic growth as well.”

David Chernushenko, an Ottawa City councillor who also previously sat as a member of the NRTEE, said that the government will be hard pressed to get good, independent advice, especially since several policy units at Environment Canada have also been cut.

“They started by gutting Environment Canada. Let’s make that very clear,” said Mr. Chernushenko, speaking as an individual. “In fact, we found ourselves in a very strange and awkward situation in 2007 or so, when they had pretty much dismantled Environment Canada’s climate change policy shop. We were actually replacing Environment Canada’s policy mechanism. Well, the round table wasn’t meant to do that.”

Mr. Chernushenko told The Hill Times the long-term implications of not having a body like the National Round Table are important as the government will no longer get any input on policy decisions that they don’t already want to hear.

“Where does anyone turn to for the best advice? And non-partisan, independent advice? It’s quite possible there’s nothing left,” he said. “Not only is there nothing left like the round table to turn to, but what I see happening now is the combination of the closing of the round table, the demonizing of environmentalists as radicals, anyone that wants to speak out in protection of environmental concerns, and the new rules for Canada Revenue Agency—on every possible front, you have a situation where this government is working to silence the voices.”

Ms. May said dismantling the NRTEE goes further than just environmental policy, however. “It’s about security, it’s the future of the country, it’s the economy, it’s whether we survive as a civilization, whether our children have a livable world at all. It’s not really the environment,” she said.

Mr. McGuinty agreed, saying that the government’s decision to eliminate the advisory panel shows Canada is now not only a “non-player” in the future green economy, but that it’s also actively dismantling progress.

“This regime is dismantling. That’s very very bad form,” he said, noting issues such as biodiversity, climate change, clean water and energy are long term issues that won’t go away. “The problem now is he’s setting us back. … It will be a lost two decades. Now while the Germans and the Scandinavians are soaring forward in becoming a more competitive economy because they’re dealing with these issues, and looking at the relationship between the environment and the economy, Harper does not give a shit about this.”

Government House Leader Peter Van Loan’s (York-Simcoe, Ont.) office said last week that the government could not confirm when the bill to repeal the National Round Table will be introduced. Because the notion was introduced in the budget, it could be included in a budget implementation bill, or be introduced later in its own legislation.

MPs last week said they expect the budget implementation bill to be introduced when Parliament returns on April 23.

“It won’t happen like the MPs’ pensions,” said Mr. Cullen, referring to a line in the budget stating that MPs’ pensions would be looked at in the next Parliament. “They have a greater urgency to eliminate things they hate.”

Original Article
Source: hill times
Author: Bea Vongdouangchanh

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