Conservatives and Liberal Sell Waterways Down the River

Literally.

The Navigable Waterways Protection Act has been thrown out with the baby's bathwater. The Act, which has protected Canada's waterways for the past 100 years, has been changed to allow thousands of projects to proceed without any environmental review.

How was this done? Via the Federal Budget Bill that has now been approved both by MPs and by the Senate.

What does the Federal Budget have to do with the NWPA? Not much, but it was a convenient way to push through legislation to give "shovel-ready" projects the go-ahead without any regard to the impact to our waterways. Protecting Canada's waterways has become 'optional'.

Canadians have had their rights trampled, again. There was no opportunity for public scrutiny of the changes to the Navigable Waterways Protection Act because they were hidden in the Budget Bill.

The world's fresh water supplies are dwindling. The actions of the Conservatives and Liberals in approving these changes to the NWPA will make matters even worse.

Be the Change...

Last night I had the privilege of attending the Halton Green Screens event "Be the Change". The film's producer David Chernushenko spoke to the audience (more than 50 people were in attendance) about why he made the film and how it was made.

Be the Change showcases people from different walks of life who have all found ways to "live lightly" in their community. Originally David had considered travelling to different cities to find the stories for his film, but he found more than enough environmentally aware people in the Ottawa area to make the movie. This speaks loudly to the "hidden heroes" living in every community and demonstrates the collective power of the communities across Canada, and around the world.

David also let us know that he is currently working on another film project - Powerful: energy security for everyone - in which he explores our sources of energy, who controls it, where the profit is going, and how to ensure that we have safe sustainable sources of energy in the future.

For more information on "Living Lightly" please visit http://www.livinglightly.ca/.

Women's Caucus

On the first day of the Green Party convention a women's caucus was formed. There were over 70 women in attendance at our inaugural meeting!

The formation of a women's caucus is an important step in attracting women to take an active role in policy development, and to creating an atmosphere that welcomes women to run as Green Party candidates.

This group of women are representative of women all across Canada who are striving to make a difference in their communities. It was wonderful to be one of them. I look forward to working with these Green women!

Momentum

Having just returned home from the Green Party convention in Pictou, Nova Scotia, I am even more motivated to continue in my efforts to ensure that Greens get elected! Green Party members spent the last 3 days in workshops, discussing and amending over 200 resolutions that will make our policies even more robust.

We heard several speakers over the weekend, including Dr. John O'Connor who identified the increase in cancer rates in people living downwind from the Athabasca Tar Sands; Avrim Lazar, President and CEO of Forest Products Association of Canada who spoke about the need for environmentally sound forestry; Holly Dressel who addressed the current state of our Canadian Health Care system; Nobel Prize winner Jim Bruce who updated us about the climate crisis; and Andrew Nikiforuk who discussed the ramifications of Canada as a "petro-state".

Each of these speakers was compelling and inspired us to carry our motivation with us to the polls at the next federal election, but even more importantly, to keep Green Party policies in the forefront.

A National poll, recently conducted by Ipsos-Reid, has concluded that three quarters of Canadians want the government to "adopt stimulus measures that are environmentally sustainable". I am encouraged that so many Canadians feel this way, and will continue to support policies that lead us in this direction.

A Sustainable future is a Green future!