Navigable Waters Protection Act

Tuesday, 03 February 2009 21:25

Federal Government uses Economic Crisis to Gut Navigable Waters Protection Act
By Carly Armstrong, Forest Campaigner with Earthroots.org

The alarm bells rang for the Navigable Waters Protection Act (NWPA) last fall, when the Federal government organized a steering committee to address a proposal to change the more than century old NWPA. The project was dropped during the federal election but has now been slotted into the Federal budget plan in an unprecedented move to revise legislation through a budget plan.

The NWPA is an Act that enshrines an important part of Canadian culture and heritage, the right to navigate a water body anywhere in our vast country. The proposed changes seek to alter important definitions in the Act, including the difference between minor and major waterways and minor and major works. The move, admittedly to relieve a backlog of projects and reduce environmental regulations, will also mean that smaller rivers and streams commonly used by recreational paddlers may be the site of development without being subject to the existing regulatory processes.

Of equal importance is the lack of public consultation involved in these important changes. Earthroots believes that before any changes to this legislation are made, the public should be consulted. Hundreds of thousands of recreational canoeists, kayakers, and other boaters utilize their right to navigation on Canadian waters each year and it is unacceptable to make such sweeping changes without consulting the public.

Please visit www.ispeakforcanadianrivers.ca for more information on the issue and how to make your voice heard. Tell our federal government you deserve to be consulted in the revisions to this Act and do not want to loose your right to navigate