Buck-Buck-Buck-KAW! Harper Fisheries Minister Dodges ?s On Need To "Authorize More Pollution"

OTTAWA – Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s minister in charge of protecting Canada’s fisheries does not appear to have an explanation for suggesting that the country needs new rules to “authorize” more water pollution. Several days after Postmedia News reported he had made this argument in support of new environmental legislation, that was expected to be adopted on Friday, Fisheries and Oceans Minister Keith Ashfield has not offered to explain his own remarks.

“There are currently few tools to authorize pollution other than by detailed regulations,” Ashfield wrote in a June 14 letter to Todd Panas, president of the Union of Environment Workers. “For example, the amended Fisheries Act will provide flexibility and establish new tools to authorize deposits of deleterious substances.”

Ashfield recently signed a departmental report that warned the government’s “change agenda” for protecting Canada’s fisheries could be overturned in court, but that it could also boost morale within the department and its public image through a new communications strategy.

Internal department records, released through access to information legislation, have also warned that heavy workloads and high turnover within the department could jeopardize the federal government’s ability to protect Canadians from the dangerous impacts of industrial projects.

EDIT

http://o.canada.com/2012/06/29/harper-minister-ducks-questions-on-plan-to-authorize-water-pollution/