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Downsizing environmental protection
Stephen Magusiak. Pass Herald Reporter (ran May 31st)

The department of fisheries and oceans will be downsized considerably under the new federal budget, to the outrage of the Alberta Wilderness Association and the Friends of the Oldman River.

Due to the department's budget cutbacks, 80 fishery officer positions and 42 habitat management positions will be cut in Canada. This is a worst case scenario, according to officials in the department of Fisheries and Oceans.

Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and the Northwest Territories could face up to 56 layoffs.

"The department is still trying to quietly undertake this initiative, reducing both levels of service to Canadians and the level of protection to the aquatic environment." said Martha Kostuch, Vice president of the Friends of the Old man River.

The result of this is the 'modernizing compliance initiative'. Fisheries and Oceans now has to limit its level of service due to budget restrictions, and so, will be changing the way they enforce wildlife protection compliance.

"We want to start taking our resources and using them more towards high risk activities that affect fish habitat" said Phil Jenkins, spokesperson for Fisheries and Oceans, "this means not applying as much beaurocracy towards lower risk activities that affect fish habitat. The idea is to try to approach the way we enforce habitat in a more practical risk management framework"

For example, Phil says that if somebody were to build a cottage dock that could affect fish habitat, the department would not apply the same amount of pressure that it would apply to a big highway interchange that could have a serious consequence to fish habitats.

"It doesn't mean total abandonment, it means that we're taking a different approach."

The DFO plans to offset the round of layoffs by hiring 40 new habitat stewardship and monitoring position officers, but these positions will not have the authority to conduct inspections, respond to complaints or enforce the fisheries act, limiting their ability to conserve the aquatic environment.

The Alberta Wilderness Association accuses the federal department of being secretive in implementing the initiative.

"It's no wonder that this is being done in secrecy-it is an affront to the decades of hard work by Canadians who care about their waterways and good public process," says Cliff Wallis, AWA Past President and President of Friends of the Oldman River. "we need to strengthen, not weaken, our enforcement capacity and funding for conserving fish habitat."

The federal budget requires all government departments to find resources that could be re-allocated. Fisheries and Oceans has to reduce expenditures by $7 million by the 2007-2008 fiscal year.

Exactly how this will affect Alberta is still unknown by the DFO, but considerable layoffs are likely. the Alberta Wilderness Association and the Friends of the Old Man River are concerned that the door will be open for the destruction of fish habitat, but the DFO officials say that they will not be turning a blind eye towards those who knowingly destroy fish habitat. Enforcement of such offenses, however, remains a concern.