Every River Now Threatened in Canada!
Incredible as it may seem, the Harper government is considering the emlimination of the historic right of public navigation in Canada.
Under the direction of the Minister of Transport, Lawrence Cannon, the Navigable Waters Protection Act (NWPA) is being re-written to eliminate the obligation to consider impacts on navigation when building dams, bridges, causeways, booms or other invasive structures on thousands of waterways across Canada.
They hope to achieve this by exempting “minor waters” and “minor works” under the NWPA, and by re-defining “navigation” under the act in a way that it may exclude all recreational navigation, all white water streams, all seasonal waterways, all people-powered vessels of any kind, and in fact any vessels with less than one meter draft.
For more info and how to get involved - please visit: http://www.canadianrivers.net/
August 9th, 2008 at 6:59 pm
This is a pretty serious issue. A new website has been put up to bring awareness to it. Visit http://www.ispeakforcanadianrivers.ca for more info and to sign the petition.
David H. Johnston
http://www.paddlinginstructor.com