Private member’s bill tabled by Okanagan MP highlights water protection shortfalls

The bill aims to add more than a dozen lakes, rivers and creeks to the B.C. riding of South Okanagan-West Kootenay.

A private member’s bill tabled on Tuesday seeks to draw attention to what one Member of Parliament says are insufficient environmental protections for Canada’s lakes and rivers.

On Dec. 14, NDP MP Richard Cannings introduced Bill C-214, which would amend the Canadian Navigable Waters Act.

The bill aims to add more than a dozen lakes, rivers and creeks in his B.C. riding of South Okanagan-West Kootenay to the law’s list of protected waters in an attempt to regain safeguards that were lost in the Harper-era rollback of environmental protections and never fully reinstated under the current Liberal government.

The Navigable Waters Protection Act, as it was previously known, required any construction going in, on, over, under, through or across any navigable water to receive approval from the transportation minister. Any substantial interference to the ability to navigate these waters by boat triggered an environmental assessment.

In 2012, former prime minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative government stripped this protection from 99 per cent of lakes and rivers by creating a list that initially only included three oceans, 97 lakes and 62 rivers.

Despite the Liberal Party’s promise during the 2015 federal election to “review these changes, restore lost protections, and incorporate more modern safeguards,” it neglected to relist all lakes and rivers.

Instead, after reviewing the Harper-era act in 2016, the Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities recommended maintaining the current list but improving the process for adding waterways “by making it easily accessible, easy to use and transparent.”

The committee also recommended a public awareness campaign “to inform stakeholders of the process.”