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I'm no govt apologist, but perhaps this should not necessarily be interpreted as inexplicable active support of trading in endangered species by using approval-delaying tactics.
Instead (extending Dave's first few comments), it might be a more parochial response from an Environment Canada bureaucracy proclaiming: "Our manpower resources have been so severely damaged that we can't respond quickly to this sort of thing, so need a delay. Message: take note, we need more govt resources, or you'll see more of this sort of thing which may continue to portray Canada in a bad light".
Heartless blackmail perhaps, but one shouldn't underestimate the bitterness of the scorned/underfunded.
Steve
________________________________________
From: naturens-owner@chebucto.ns.ca [naturens-owner@chebucto.ns.ca] on behalf of Rick Whitman [dendroica.caerulescens@gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, December 11, 2014 1:34 PM
To: naturens
Subject: Re: [NatureNS] Canada's position on at-risk species 'unprecedented'
Hi Dave,
I would never actually tell you, or anyone else, that they should not speak their mind. It's just that I have seen similar topics, which *must* be recognized as "political", ruffle some feathers here. I'm not into setting that in motion.
And actually, I truly believe that everyone here is rather intelligent, & for myself, I'm totally happy for everyone to read this & make their own conclusions. I think I know where the mainstream thinking will be.
Best, Rick.
On Thu, Dec 11, 2014 at 1:10 PM, David & Alison Webster <dwebster@glinx.com<mailto:dwebster@glinx.com>> wrote:
Hi Rick & All,
I am baffled by the notion that discussion might not be useful.
No doubt it is not possible to flick a switch and correct such problems. But why avoid discussion ?
One rather large hydra has as usual many heads but only one body; a civil service which has become threadbare as a result of attrition and, in some cases, never furnished with the necessary resources to do the mandated job in the first place; a large number of electric motors with the copper windings removed and sold for scrap.
Battles are now lost on a regular basis all for the want of a horseshoe nail and/or an ounce of common sense and the updating of regulations that have long since passed their best before date.
Amherst, due to public pressure, turned down $500,000 for disposal of fracking water after being purified to drinking water standards. Why ? Largely because the public is rightly skeptical of industry assurances. Without government funded science, which is absolutely free of any pressure and consequently able to act as a reliable way to confirm or reject assurances by industry one can expect mob rule, informed by misinformation, to become commonplace. And this can only lead to economically destructive decisions.
In any case, a back of envelope calculation showed the potential dilution to be astronomical so there should never have been a fuss. But when democracy is used to establish the value of pi then 21 people who prefer 3 will beat 20 who say it is about 3.14159.
The same considerations apply to the Alton gas storage project now stalled, partly because there is a concern about adding Sodium to the ocean. Huh ?? If the company were to release their water, following the schedule which they propose, I really don't understand how there could be a problem. If done by instant feedback, mixing and release or shutdown could be automated. Once again, objective oversight by government funded science would avoid these foolish and destructive shouting matches.
About 10 years ago someone on the South Shore developed a way to trap and use a truly invasive species of crab (Green crab I think and used for Lobster bait) .He was fined for fishing Green Crabs without a licence and lost his means of earning a living when he should have been given some reward. But by the same agency he was denied a licence because it was not an established fishery so they could not issue one. A trace of common sense in the enforcement of regulations would predictably lead to better outcomes.
Some years ago the fur industry sleep walked into a Phosphate pollution problem. This could never have happened if anyone involved in advising this industry had known the first thing about the behavior of Phosphate in soil and in waterways. After more than a decade I am not sure that the "problem" has yet been solved. There is no substitute for direct access to lab resources as opposed to reading the 'how to do it' guide, often written by someone who has never done it. The only really reliable teacher is ground truth.
And, finally, on a personal level, a sad story of a stalled transaction which shows how we are heading. When I bought a woodlot in 1971 the widow who was selling it had never seen it so I had to make a few phone calls one evening to find someone who could tell me how to find it, I searched the title back 100 years and this took about an hour plus a nominal fee. She arranged for someone to walk the lines with me and within a week I had the deed, registered for a nominal fee, and she had her money.
I received and accepted an offer to sell that lot on Aug 7 of this year. The buyer had cash set aside and was ready to fork it over. But it is still stalled in Migration. And cost of migration will likely exceed the initial cost by a wide margin. The familiar problem; set up a gold-plated system, provide inadequate resources to administer it and let the public be dammed.
Shortly after I bought the North Alton woodlot in 1981 I checked the ownership of one adjacent lot on an orthophoto map at some county planning office and noticed that my lot had the name of someone who had never owned it. When I asked to have the name corrected I was told that they could not correct it because funds for that program had been cut and not to worry because their maps don't mean anything anyway.
End of rant for now.
DW
"Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey" Oliver Goldsmith
----- Original Message -----
From: Rick Whitman<mailto:dendroica.caerulescens@gmail.com>
To: naturens<mailto:naturens@chebucto.ns.ca>
Sent: Thursday, December 11, 2014 7:16 AM
Subject: [NatureNS] Canada's position on at-risk species 'unprecedented'
http://www.thechronicleherald.ca/canada/1256985-canada’s-position-on-at-risk-species-‘unprecedented’
Perhaps this should just be read on its own merit. You may draw your own conclusions. Discussion here might not be useful.
Best,
Rick Whitman
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