Public Service Alliance of Canada BC

World Oceans Day was officially declared by the United Nations as June 8th each year beginning in 2009. The concept was proposed on 8 June 1992 by Canada at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and it had been unofficially celebrated every year since then as World Ocean Day.

World Ocean Day is an opportunity every year to honor the world’s ocean, celebrate the products the ocean provides, such as seafood, as well as marine life itself for aquariums, pets, and also a time to appreciate its own intrinsic value. The ocean also provides sea-lanes for international trade. Global pollution and over-consumption of fish have resulted in drastically dwindling population of the majority of species.

The official United Nations 2009 World Oceans Day theme is: “Our Oceans, Our Responsibility”. For more information, visit un.org.

Here is an excerpt from an excellent article by Rafe Mair, writer, broadcaster and former Socred Cabinet Minister.

A re-election of Mr. Campbell will mean the not so slow strangulation of BC Hydro, our power company that is the envy the world and it will happen this way. Hydro has lost 1/3 of its employees to Accenture, the bastard nephew of the infamous Enron, and its transmission lines to a new crown corporation, BCTC. Meanwhile, what�s left of our public power utility, BC Hydro, is banned from developing new sources of renewable energy and is forced instead to buy large quantities of expensive private river power that we don�t need and can�t use at more than twice the market price. Buy high and sell low! With just a few private projects now up and running already Hydro owes $30 BILLION on long term indexed prices and every private project adds to the total and tightens that strangling noose. Barred from producing new sources of power and still carrying its $7 BILLION Capital debt, Hydro is on its death bed only waiting for Mr. Campbell to administer the Last Rites.

As he did with BC Rail, Premier Campbell promises to keep BC Hydro publicly owned � that, if nothing else, must tell us what he intends to do.

Visit ourrivers.ca to read the entire article. For more about the campaign� to return of all BC Hydro�s operations to public control visit publicpowerbc.ca.

By JENNIFER LASH and BILL WAREHAM

Jennifer Lash is the Executive Director of Living Oceans Society and Bill Wareham is Senior Conservation Specialist, Marine Conservation Program, at David Suzuki Foundation.

VANCOUVER, B.C. – The ocean touches the lives of all Canadians every day.
It produces close to half of the oxygen in the world’s atmosphere. Canadians eat six kilograms of Canadian-caught seafood per capita each year. And our oceans’ resources contribute $23-billion annually to Canada’s economy.
Canadians from Calgary to Toronto benefit from a healthy ocean as much as the residents of Sointula, B.C., and Petty Harbour, Nfld./Lab.
So why, at a time of record surpluses, is the federal government letting the health of our oceans slip away?

Destructive fishing practices such as bottom trawling continue to destroy critical habitat, overfishing threatens the future of our fish stocks, and less than 0.1 per cent of our coastal and ocean environments are protected.

Canada took a progressive step towards caring for our coasts in 1997 when the Oceans Act was passed, enabling the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to manage not just the fish we harvest, but the ocean ecosystem as a whole. Further action in 2002 established the Oceans Strategy, a blueprint for sustainable use of the ocean.
And when Canada’s Oceans Action Plan was ratified in 2005, funds began to flow to Canada’s marine regions, empowering progressive changes in ocean management in the Maritimes, the Arctic, and the Pacific Coast of Canada.

However, this wave of change has slowed to a trickle. The federal government’s approach has significantly slowed progress on realizing an action plan that will ensure conservation of our marine resources.
The federal government’s proposal to establish nine marine protected areas across our three oceans is a good start.
However, the federal government failed to make a commitment to marine management planning processes that could lead to integrated oceans management and ensure all ocean-related activities are conducted in a manner that does not compromise the health of our ocean ecosystems. In short, their approach is the equivalent of setting up nine parks in Canada’s vast forest landscape and allowing the rest to be clear-cut.

Our oceans need a network of marine protected areas designed to conserve the full range and function of Canada’s marine ecosystems. Their choice and location should be based on the knowledge and needs of the people who work and live on our coasts. Our oceans need an ecosystem-based management approach—one that will allow us to harvest resources and realize the benefits provided by our oceans for generations to come. Canada has an Oceans Strategy that could make all this happen if it is actually implemented.

Right now, Canada’s oceans need some leadeship. The federal government failed to show leadership in the 2007 budget when it allocated a meagre $19-million over five years towards ocean conservation and clean water, and surveillance.
Additional funding provided this year gave priority to other issues. Funding for the Oceans Strategy was reduced to a trickle. Without sufficient funding, our oceans cannot be effectively managed. Canadians on every coast have voiced grave concern that the 2007 budget failed our oceans and along with them some of the most abundant and diverse webs of marine life on earth. It also failed the millions of Canadians whose livelihoods depend on healthy oceans.

Over the next few months, the federal government will set its fiscal priorities for the 2008 budget. This is a golden opportunity to invest the necessary funds initiatives that improve the management of our oceans.
To start, a $300 million investment over five years would ensure that Canada’s Oceans Strategy planning initiatives, management reforms and conservation goals can be achieved. The strategy is a good one, but it has languished because of a serious lack of funding and prioritization by government.
In 1997 Canada built an international reputation as a world leader in oceans management. Unfortunately, our reputation is quickly being tarnished as other countries such as Australia, New Zealand and the United States surpass us in implementing their own ocean legislation, policies and management reforms.
A healthy Canada includes healthy oceans. Let’s hope the Prime Minister and his government take corrective action soon. The federal government failed to show leadership in the 2007 budget when it allocated a meagre $19-million over five years towards ocean conservation and clean water, and surveillance. Additional funding provided this year gave priority to other issues. Funding for the Oceans Strategy was reduced to a trickle.

The Minister of Fisheries and many of his colleagues support the Oceans Strategy.
With a record federal surplus of $9-billion in the first six months of 2007, the government has the capacity to do the right thing. All that is lacking is the political will.

The Hill Times

Tell Harper to Stop Blocking a Climate Agremeent In Bali

Right now, a major UN summit in Bali has just a few days left to hammer out an agreement on stopping catastrophic climate change. But instead of helping out, Canada is actually sabotaging the talks! On Saturday, experts gave us the global “fossil” award for being the worst country in the world on climate change.

There’s still a few days left to save Canada’s reputation — and the climate — but we need a massive democratic roar to remind our Prime Minister what Canada is all about, and stop him from blocking the world at Bali.
Click below to sign the petition, which will be advertised with the number of signatures in an ad campaign across Canada this week. The goal is to get 25,000 people to sign in the next 3 days — before the ads run.
After you sign, forward this
information to all your friends and family right away.
Click here to sign petition.

Prime Minister Harper’s short-sighted, undemocratic and big oil-driven policy on climate change is damaging the world and destroying our image as a good country. We’re supposed to be the nice guys, who try to do the right thing in the world.
The vast majority of Canadians are hopping mad on this issue — we can win this. We just need to show Harper how serious we are that he change course. Sign up now and forward this
information to everyone you know – we’ve got just 3 days to hit 25,000 signatures!

Thanks for you help!

PS – Here are links to some more info on this:

David Suzuki (the Nature of Things) calls the government’s spin on climate change “humiliating” and “ludicrous”:
click here to access link

The former editor-in-chief of CBC news discusses the damage done by Canada’s climate policy to our international reputation:
click here to access link

OTTAWA – The Harper government, having finally figured out that being seen to be “green” could translate into votes, is in the process of sacrificing other vital Environment Canada programs in a misguided attempt to focus almost exclusively on climate change.

The Public Service Alliance of Canada’s Union of Environment Workers (PSAC/UEW) takes strong exception to Environment Minister John Baird’s claims that no programs have been cut and that spending is just being prioritized for climate change initiatives.

“Program budgets that are being slashed by 50 to 100 percent are cuts,” says UEW National President Bill Pynn, “regardless of what the government may claim.”

“The government’s decision to cut programs not related to climate change demonstrates their lack of a comprehensive plan for sustaining and protecting our environment and their abysmal lack of understanding of the important work Environment Canada performs,” says Pynn. “It is also one more move by the Harper government to reduce if not eliminate the federal government’s responsibility to provide necessary public services at the national level.”

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The PSAC Vancouver Regional Office recently switched from drinking bottled water to tap water … here’s why.

Our union recently identified Defending Quality Public Services as one of our key priorities.

Water is the most important public service in the world. It is also a fundamental human right and according to the United Nations, “the human right to drinking water is fundamental to life and health.”

Unfortunately, the majority of people in the world do not have access to this fundamental human right. Over 1.7 billion people lack access to safe drinking water and each year, millions of children die of disease caused by unsafe water. The numbers are increasing as multinational companies turn water into a commodity that is being privatized, bottled and sold back to us in the guise of being “purer, healthier and safer,” even though much of this water is re-filtered from our municipal supplies.

We need to defend and keep water as a quality public service that everyone in the world has the right to access without paying for it.

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As a socially responsible union, the PSAC recognizes that protection of the environment is of paramount importance. Over the long term, economic growth and employment creation will be impossible unless the environmental destruction of the past is reversed.

• Read all of PSAC Policy 22 – The Environment – at the national website.

As a result the PSAC strives take a positive stand and, where possible, action on specific environmental problems and encourages our members to actively participate in environmental rejuvenation and become involved with civic and provincial groups which are working to combat the pollution of our waters, land and air.

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The theme for our Conference is “Women and the Environment: Our Health, Our Families, Our Communities, Our Jobs”

Are you worried about how environmental degradation is affecting your health? your family? your community? your job? your leisure time? your safety? What’s happening to our environment is a women’s issue and a union issue.

Join with other union women at our upcoming women’s conference to learn more about what is happening to our environment, hear from union sisters who work in the front line federal departments about how government cutbacks are undermining our ability to protect each other, network with others in the union and community who are working together to save our planet, and find out how you can get involved.

The Conference will take place September 28,29,30 2007 at the Hilton Vancouver Metrotown, Burnaby, BC.

Apply on line here, or download an application form (pdf) and mail or fax it back to the Vancouver Regional Office. Please note the application deadline is Aug 24^th, and the resolution deadline is Aug 17^th. Resolutions may be submitted by PSAC constitutionally-recognized bodies and union structures.

Sisters and Brothers:

This year, on April 22, over 500 million people in more than 100 countries will be celebrating International Earth Day. Some 6 million Canadians will participate in Earth Day events in schools, community groups, youth groups, unions, and environmental organizations. Nearly all school children in Canada will participate in an Earth Day event.

Across Canada, there is widespread support for protecting the environment. According to the David Suzuki Foundation, nine out of ten Canadians rate the environment as one of their top concerns, and eight out of ten Canadians believe that environmental protection should be given priority over economic growth.

Despite this widespread popular support, successive federal governments have systematically dismantled environment programs and replaced them with rhetoric and little substance. Canada is sadly one of the world’s most wasteful nations in terms of excessive energy consumption, water use, and greenhouse gas emissions. Our performance on the majority of environmental indicators is worsening. Clearly, there is a gap between our environmental values and our poor environmental record.

Read John Gordon’s Earth Day message at the national website.