Former DFO directors slam Feds for gutting Fisheries Act and eliminating the Experimental Lakes Area
June 22, 2012 (OTTAWA) — Four former Regional Director Generals of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans – Burton Ayles, Paul Sutherland, Herb Lawler, and Rick Josephson – have strongly spoken out to decry the Government of Canada’s profound changes to the Fisheries Act rolled into Omnibus Budget Bill C-38 and the closure of Canada’s Experimental Lakes Area.
These senior managers were responsible for Canada's freshwater ecosystems stretching from Ontario and the Great Lakes across the prairies and to the Arctic, from 1981-1995.
In a letter addressed to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Fisheries Minister Keith Ashfield, the Directors state: “We believe you have been ill advised by either political staff with little understanding of federal constitutional responsibilities and with little appreciation of the importance of clean water and viable aquatic ecosystems to the well-being of all Canadians or by federal bureaucrats with a bias towards the management of marine fisheries”.
The letter outlines the historical, constitutional responsibilities of the federal government for fisheries. Changes to the Fisheries Act in Bill C-38 will remove protection from the vast majority of Canadian fresh waters, those lakes and rivers that do not have a commercial, recreational, or aboriginal fishery. The directors warn about the cumulative effects of harming these unprotected, often small, bodies of water – the tyranny of cumulative effects.
The Directors state that the closure the Experimental Lakes Area (ELA), and other science programs, will further erode the protection of freshwater habitats. For the last 44 years, the ELA program has contributed scientific knowledge essential for managing fisheries and protecting fish habitat. The federal government is trying to off-load this research station onto universities, but this program should fall within the purview of government.
The erosion of legislation and research programs, fostered by Bill C-38, abrogates the responsibility of the federal government to protect fish habitat and aquatic ecosystems. Too much is being discarded by this federal government in the name of economic growth.
“When did the protection of fish habitat and aquatic ecosystems no longer become a federal mandate?”, asks Burton Ayles, DFO Regional Director General, 1986-1993, “How was that decided? When did contaminants in fish become of low priority to Canada? Why was it decided that Canada no longer needs to support a research facility unique in the world? Where did this ill advice come from and what is behind it?"
-30-
Coalition to Save ELA
Website: www.saveela.org
A copy of the letter is available on our website: http://saveela.org/letters/
Contact information for the lead author:
G. Burton Ayles, Ph.D.
Regional Director General, DFO Central and Arctic Region 1993-1995 (Retired)
Tel: 204-257-4453, Email: aylesb (at) mts.net