Read this story from the Vancouver Sun on the Harper Conservatives push to gut the federal environmental assessment act. (March 14, 2012)

Conservative and opposition MPs crossed swords Tuesday over recommendations to “modernize” environ-mental assessments in Canada that could speed up approvals of projects, while weakening reviews of potential environ-mental effects.

The controversial recommendations were introduced Tues-day in the House of Commons by a committee of MPs that is reviewing the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, adopted by the government of former Conservative prime minister Brian Mulroney.

Michelle Rempel, a Calgary-based Conservative MP, said the 20 recommendations in the report could help the country avoid losing economic opportunities to lengthy reviews that need to be more “efficient” and “effective.”

But she was unable to say exactly how proposed changes would have affected a recent case in which a federal review rejected a proposal to turn a fishing lake into a dumping ground for a new mine after the project was approved by the provincial government in B.C.

“I think it’s important to note that the committee’s report provides recommendations to the government to explore and where there are opportunities to leverage provincial processes that are working, we should examine those,” said Rempel, the lead Conservative MP on the committee and parliamentary secretary to Environment Minister Peter Kent. “This is something for the government to respond to and I look forward to receiving that response and reviewing it.”

NDP environment critic Megan Leslie described the report as a work of “fiction” that avoided credible testimony during hearings and instead quoted from statements made by Conservative MPs who want to “gut” environmental protection legislation in Canada.

She also noted that Conservative MPs on the commit-tee shut down the review after only nine days of hearings, pre-venting an adequate review of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, as required by the legislation.

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/Proposed+changes+assessment+criticized/6298803/story.html