NDP brings fight for lakes and rivers to ridings

Back to work in their ridings next week, New Democrat MPs will be continuing the fight to protect Canada’s lakes and rivers. Since it was introduced, Official Opposition MPs have been standing up in the House of Commons fighting against the Conservatives’ monster omnibus budget bill and the ways it will hurt our waterways.

“This monster bill will have long-term, negative repercussions for Canadians. We wanted to study it at committee but the Conservatives blocked us at every turn,” said NDP House Leader Nathan Cullen (Skeena–Bulkley Valley). “It’s disappointing that they’re abandoning their basic responsibility to Canadians in favour of ideology.”

Bill C-45 is the latest step in the Conservatives’ plan to force through legislation that will gut environmental oversight and cut the services Canadians rely on. Although the Conservatives agreed to send it to committee, they imposed unreasonable time limits, blocked New Democrat amendments and only sent sections to committees they knew wouldn’t be able to do proper analysis.

“Once again the Conservatives have put the whims of their oil industry friends ahead of the needs of Canadians,” said Opposition Whip Nycole Turmel (Hull–Aylmer). “This is a bad bill and over the constituency week we’re going to consult Canadians and bring their ideas back to Ottawa.”

“The sad result of this monster bill is that our lakes and rivers are being left unprotected,” said NDP Environment critic Megan Leslie (Halifax).