Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Budget targets environmental critics

OTTAWA — Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's budget takes aim at the federal government's environmental critics, while reducing its own internal resources for promoting sustainable development.

The budget tabled Thursday proposes a few environmental protection measures. In contrast, it contains an $8-million plan to crack down on conservation groups, while maintaining the status quo on substantial tax incentives for the oil and gas sector.

The budget also proposes to eliminate a key federal advisory panel on business and environmental issues — and its $5.2 million annual budget — which is headed by Flaherty's former chief of staff, David McLaughlin.

The National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy, originally established in the 1990s to advise the prime minister, regularly produced reports that challenged the business and environmental policies of the government, particularly regarding climate change.

The proposed crackdown on charities would add new resources to the Canada Revenue Agency to monitor and restrict environmental groups from sending out emails to supporters and other activities that are considered to be political in nature.

"Recently, concerns have been raised that some charities may not be respecting the rules regarding political activities," said the budget.

"There have also been calls for greater public transparency related to the political activities of charities, including the extent to which they may be funded by foreign sources."

Flaherty estimated in the budget that the new "compliance" activities and resources to crack down on charities would cost taxpayers $5 million in 2012-2013 and $3 million in the following fiscal year. The budget also proposed to amend the Income Tax Act to restrict charities from funding political activities of donation recipients and would introduce new penalties for those who exceed the limits on political activities or fail to report it.

The budget is also proposing to invest $60 million over two years for a few environmental initiatives, including about $2 million in funding to encourage clean energy generation and $50 million over two years in resources to support its legal obligation to protect species at risk.

The budget acknowledges that charities make a "valuable contribution to the development of public policy in Canada," and are therefore allowed to devote a limited amount of resources to non-partisan political activities related to their mandate.

The new spending comes as the federal government is reducing budgets at Environment Canada — as well as other related investments on environmental protection and research — by hundreds of millions of dollars, while maintaining several exploration and development tax incentives for the oil and gas sector that Flaherty's department recommended eliminating in a secret memo that was leaked in 2010.

David Sawyer, an environmental economist who specializes in climate change policy, has estimated these remaining subsidies are costing taxpayers $1.3 billion per year, while encouraging more pollution and emissions that cause global warming.

The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers has defended the incentives, citing a study co-authored by a board member of Imperial Oil, which concluded that the sector was not getting special treatment.

The budget proposed to phase out an Atlantic investment tax credit for oil and gas mining, for an estimated savings of up to $135 million between 2014 and 2017.

While it is proposing to amend existing environmental protection legislation to speed up assessments of major projects, the budget proposes to increase monitoring and regulations to improve the safety of pipelines and tanker traffic on the coasts.

It has also announced $13.6 million in new funding to support consultations with aboriginal communities on major resources. This funding could address concerns raised by the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency that an ongoing review of the Northern Gateway Pipeline project, proposed by Alberta-based Enbridge to link the oilsands sector with the northwest coast of British Columbia, could be rejected by the courts if they determine aboriginal communities did not have adequate resources to participate in the process.

Original Article
Source: montreal gazette
Author: Mike De Souza

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