[All] Harper's public service cuts will hurt water protection: union

[Eleanor Grant]

NEWS: Harper’s public service cuts will hurt water protection Saturday, June
18th, 2011www.canadians.org/campaignblog/?p=8297

The* Ottawa Citizen *reports, “The departure of dozens of scientists and
technicians at Environment Canada this month could mark the beginning of a
series of cuts that hamper the department’s ability to protect clean air and
water across the country, warns (the Professional Institute of the Public
Service of Canada).”

“The unions have identified at least 56 scientists and technicians from
Environment Canada whose jobs are being terminated this month. (PIPSC
president Gary) Corbett explained that it could affect the department’s
ability to sustain important research in facilities such as the National
Water Research Institute, which describes itself as the largest freshwater
research entity in the country. The institute says on its website that it
works with other partners to generate scientific knowledge required to
protect Canada’s water resources and ecosystems.”

“In figures released earlier this week, Kevin Page, the parliamentary budget
officer, projected that Environment Canada would need to eliminate 1,211
jobs over the next three years in order to meet the targeted spending cuts
identified by the government.”

“The job cuts also follow recent revelations at a public inquiry that
previous restructuring efforts had already compromised the government’s
ability to crack down on water pollution. …The Cohen Commission, a public
inquiry into dwindling stocks of sockeye salmon in B.C., received evidence
earlier this month that revealed senior officials from Environment Canada
and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans have already expressed doubts
about being able to enforce existing laws against water pollution because of
cuts by the former Liberal government. Two regional department directors
warned, in correspondence from the summer of 2004 that was released by the
commission, of losing ‘considerable water expertise through attrition and
program changes’ and a lack of resources to protect water quality.”

Additionally, in June 2010, the Canadian Press reported, “The government has
only murky information about Canada’s water supply and it’s putting
Canadians’ health and the economy at risk, an unpublished (March 2009)
federal report warns. The report notes Canada is still two decades away from
mapping a number of key aquifers.”

The federal report says, “There appears to be insufficient understanding of
how much water is presently available; where available water is located; how
severe Canada’s regional water availability issues are; current and
forecasted demands for water usage; and the anticipated impacts of climate
change on future water supplies.”

In August 2009, the Canadian Press also reported that, “The federal
government is taking too long to map Canada’s stores of groundwater (says a
briefing note prepared for the federal natural resources minister). The slow
going hinders Ottawa’s ability to make big decisions about the country’s
water.”

The Harper government says that 80,000 public service jobs can be eliminated
over the next three years through retirements and attrition. The Canadian
Centre for Policy Alternatives estimates that no more than 40,000 jobs can
be eliminated through attrition, meaning 40,000 employees would have to be
laid off. Overall, the loss of 80,000 jobs would mean a 4.5 percent cut to
the 178,000 member public service.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://gren.ca/pipermail/all_gren.ca/attachments/20110621/113c9caa/attachment.html>