It's Just Politics

Agar Adamson

When one examines the current policy ‘outputs’ of government today one can see the imprint of the environment.

Just about every department of government, whether health, education, finance, housing, transportation, municipal affairs, energy, social services, development and agriculture and fisheries are in one way or another involved with the environment, in particular global warming.

It used to be said that finance and health were the keystone departments. Perhaps environment has now replaced finance and health as the most important departments, the ones with the greatest impact on our daily lives.

The word around Province House is that Environment and Labour Minister Mark Parent is one of the more industrious members of Rollicking Rodney’s Cabinet. Unlike some of his cabinet colleagues, he comes to cabinet well prepared and he gets things done.

With the unfortunate illness of Finance Minister Michael Baker, it may well be that Mark Parent is now the most important minister in the current cabinet. Even though he is weighed down with two portfolios. The fact that he has a very strong deputy minister should also be noted; not every minister is so blessed.

Wearing his labour hat, Parent has been given the difficult and thankless task of drafting legislation to remove the ‘right to strike and lockout’ from certain unions and management.

True, the twin issues of the strike and the lockout were designed for the private sector and not for public sector unions. In the latter case, there are three parties to any labour management issues -- the workers, the managers, and the general public -- while in the former it was just the owners and the workers.

Many jurisdictions have limited public sector workers right to strike in order to protect the public as well as the politicians’ efforts to be re-elected. Provided there are impartial third party arbitrators available to mediate between the two sides one can see the merits in banning the right to strike and lockout.

However, in the current situation, one needs to examine what lay behind the dispute at the IWK Hospital, and that was the paucity of government funding.

Governments should not be able to hide behind legislation when they fail to adequately support hospitals and other services, including paramedic services and education. Given the standings in the House of Assembly, Parent must present legislation that is without question fair to the workers. Incidentally, this issue will give us a chance to see just where new Liberal leader Stephen McNeil is taking his party.

Regarding the environment, Mark Parent has an opportunity to lead this province in new directions. Perhaps you did not see the note in your last statement from Nova Scotia Power, which stated in part, “The new rates reflect higher world prices for the fuels we use to make electricity.” Will the minister put pressure on Emera, NSP’s parent, to make further investments in wind energy -- and what about tidal power?

New Brunswick is in negotiations with Newfoundland Power to purchase electricity from the South Churchill hydro development. All three of these methods of generating electricity are, unlike many of NSP’s generating stations, carbon neutral.

The new processes for tidal power development are not only more practical than the earlier concepts, they are cheaper, less invasive and might also be a direct benefit to the minister’s Kings North riding.

The high price of gasoline, not to mention the fact that it is a pollutant, has made public transit much more attractive, especially in the HRM. Will Mark Parent put his department behind the Bedford Ferry proposal and is he willing to invest in this project? Currently, the Annapolis Valley Waste Management group has a limit on the number of blue recycling bags one can put out for collection every fortnight. This seems a very shortsighted policy because it forces people to place recyclable items in their green bag, or even worse, deposit the extra bags along the roadside or dump them in the woods. Will the minister of the environment instruct organizations like Valley Waste to pick up all recyclable materials regardless of the numbers?

The same goes for tires. Because of the recycling charge owners must pay, tires are now dumped in the woods and on beaches. No Good Samaritan is going to bring these items in when they are taxed for being a friend of the environment.

Ontario has recently followed the lead of several European nations and banned single trip plastic bags. Individually, this is a small matter, but province-wide it is a mountain of plastic blowing in the wind.

One of the strengths of any cabinet minister is their capacity to work with the various pressure groups that impact upon their ministerial jurisdiction. There are many groups lobbying the department of the environment and they do not all agree on the significance of certain issues. Minister Parent appears to have grasped the ability to keep the various environmental groups on side, but this harmony may not last.

One of the major environmental issues facing this province is urban sprawl that leads to pollution of various sorts including automobiles. It also takes valuable farmland out of production. The minister has excellent examples of this situation near his constituency, namely New Minas. Is he willing to force his cabinet colleagues to put a stop to urban sprawl, which is not only ugly but is anything but environmentally friendly? Will they support him in the purchase of electricity generated by the South Churchill project when it becomes available despite the possibility of a negative impact upon NSP?

Yes, Mark Parent is one of the shining lights of the current provincial cabinet and for this he deserves our thanks. But he must not be permitted to rest on his oars. He must be continually goaded into action and his fellow Tories must be persuaded to support him.

The environment is today’s number one public policy issue because it impacts upon our health, our pocketbooks and our children’s future.

Mr. Harper has yet to grasp this simple fact and perhaps the same can be said of Mr. McDonald. Any elected politician, regardless of political stripe, who has realized this simple truth deserves our support!