Visit from members of the Federal NDPÔªø

Nathan Cullen, along with two other Members of Parliament from the NDP, were in Gitlaxt’aamix last week to attend a meeting of the Executive of Nisga’a Lisims Government and to share the NDP’s concerns about the massive piece of legislation the Harper Government has been pushing through the House of Commons in Ottawa.

Mr. Cullen, who is now House Leader in the House of Commons, thanked the members for accommodating their request to meet.  He spoke on the legislation and how the NDP objected to the way Harper was forcing so many changes into law without allowing for proper debate about each change.  Although the title of the Bill references the budget, many of the changes have little or nothing to do with budgets.

Fin Donelly-MP for New Westminister-Coquitlam and Port Moody, is the Federal NDP critic for fisheries, spoke about how these amendments will fundamentally change the way fisheries will be managed.  Previously, he stated, the goal of fisheries management was to protect fish habitats; now the focus of the proposed changes will narrow the focus to protecting only selected fish species, and those species have not yet been identified.  Also the threshold for protection has been raised in effect to consider if those species are in danger of being killed or destroyed. 

Megan Leslie-MP for Halifax, is the Federal NDP critic for the environment, shared her concerns about how Harper is eroding the protections of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act ‚Äì almost 1/3 of the bill deals with changes to this Act.  As a result of these changes, she stated that the expectations were that the number of projects that will require environmental review will shrink from several thousand to less than a dozen.   Fewer projects will be required to submit to environmental review.

The Chairperson of the Executive and also reminded the NDP that NLG continues also to have concerns about other laws that Harper is seeking to enact respecting clean drinking water.

The Chair further thanked Cullen and his colleagues for their visit, and hoped they would enjoy the rest of their visit through the valley.