Navigable Waters Act at committee one last time

Two hours of Transport Committee hearings Tuesday will be the last word the House of Commons hears on the 130-year-old Navigable Waters Protection Act.

The Act is to be replaced by the Navigation Protection Act, a piece of legislation included in bill C-45, the government's second omnibus Budget Implementation Act.

"We're losing our tools to protect fresh water and our federal government is really getting rid of their responsibility to protect our waterways," argues Meredith Brown, the Ottawa Riverkeeper, a watchdog group that monitors water quality in the Ottawa River and its tributaries.

The Ottawa is one 62 rivers, 97 lakes and three oceans that will be protected under the new act. The old act protected every body of water you could float a canoe in and required ministerial approval to be sought for any structure that went over, under or through a waterway.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2012/11/05/pol-navigable-waters-committee-hearings.html

Ontario and BC want to move in immediately with a new act to take over the federal inability to manage our resources. They should make known immediately that this is coming and that any further leg will be subject to these provincial acts.