Don't worry everyone. Unlike JT Andrew Scheer actually cares about the environment.
2015:
Catherine McKenna imposes a handful of conditions, including that the city improve water-quality monitoring
www.theglobeandmail.com
The new federal Environment Minister has granted Montreal permission to dump billions of litres of raw sewage into the St. Lawrence River so the city can make critical repairs to its waste-water system.
Catherine McKenna, who is in Paris preparing for the United Nations climate-change summit that begins at the end of the month, broke from her mission to give the green light on what she admitted was a "far from ideal" decision on her sixth day in office.
Ms. McKenna imposed a handful of conditions on the sewage spill, including that the city improve water-quality monitoring, as well as cleanup and emergency response plans, and consult more with First Nations communities along the riverbank. The work, which involves pouring a billion litres of sewage into the river a day, is expected to last a week and must be completed by Dec. 5.
"I wish there were a magic bullet here, I wish there were other options," Ms. McKenna said in a conference call from Paris. "This release is far from ideal, but it is needed for the city of Montreal to perform critical maintenance on their infrastructure before winter.
"If we do not allow this to go ahead and there was an unplanned discharge, the long-term impact to flora and fauna could be significantly more."
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The mayor welcomed the decision, calling it "science-based" and saying it was unlike the political manoeuvring of the previous federal government. "I have no problem with the conditions, and I have no problem with a postmortem," Mr. Coderre said. "It's positive and constructive."
The file, which had been before the federal government for 18 months, landed in Ms. McKenna's lap after it emerged as an issue in the recent election campaign. The former Conservative government suddenly put Montreal's plan on hold, citing concerns about fish habitat. It also named a panel to review the plan.
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Ottawa's report, released Friday, said the planned dump could cause harm, but an unplanned release triggered by a possible system failure if the sewage system breaks down would be more harmful. This dump will be the third time in eight years that Montreal has poured billions of litres of sewage into the river. The report suggested future mitigation efforts, and Ms. McKenna said the city will participate in an Environment Canada review to find better ways to handle future repairs.
"All I can say is I inherited this file on the first day. Things were not conducted in the way I would have hoped for," Ms. McKenna said. "We can do better and we will do better."
Story from a few days ago:
Canada's old-fashioned city sewer systems dumped nearly 900 billion litres of raw sewage into this country's waterways over five years, enough to fill up an Olympic-sized swimming pool more than 355,000 times.
vancouverisland.ctvnews.ca
OTTAWA -- Canada's old-fashioned city sewer systems dumped nearly 900 billion litres of raw sewage into this country's waterways over five years, enough to fill up an Olympic-sized swimming pool more than 355,000 times.
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Among the data that was released is the total amount of effluent, or untreated wastewater, that escapes from combined sewer and storm systems like those found in major cities such as Toronto, Ottawa and Edmonton. These systems are often release untreated sewage when storms overwhelm them, to prevent backups and floods. Between 2013 and 2018, the data says 890 billion litres of effluent escaped.
In 2018, 10 cities were responsible for more than 90 per cent of the venting, led by Port Alberni, B.C., which pumped out nearly 47 billion litres, followed by Richmond, B.C.'s 42 billion litres.
Conservative environment critic Kerry-Lynne Findlay said Thursday she thinks the data shows a failure of the federal Liberals to make clean water a priority.
"There is no reason in 2020 that major cities should not be addressing their wastewater," she said. "We need this to become a priority. We have the technology. It's a matter of having the political will to do it."
The Conservatives promised during the fall campaign to stop the dumping of raw sewage, a promise that was partly aimed at Quebec voters. Several cities in that province have purposely dumped untreated wastewater into rivers in recent years, mostly during construction or upgrades to existing systems.
Moira Kelly, spokesperson for Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson, said Thursday the Liberals approved more than $1.5 billion for 1,452 wastewater projects between 2015 and 2019.
"Unlike the Conservatives, we are not proposing cutting billions of dollars from much-needed infrastructure projects across the country, which was the Conservative campaign plan," she said. "Our government will continue to make investments in infrastructure to grow the economy and protect water."