OTTAWA – Finance Minister Jim Flaherty’s federal budget dedicates just five pages to environmental issues —including measures such as resurfacing the Trans-Canada Highway through a national park and building more snowmobile trails.

Critics cite the absence of the words “climate change” in the 400-plus page document as evidence the government has given up on the environment.

The Conservatives have moved a long way from their 2007 federal budget, which dedicated 17 pages to various environmental initiatives and claimed a “global imperative to address climate change.”

But after spending about $25 million over the last two years advertising “responsible resource development,” there’s no money in the current budget for enforcing environmental stewardship.

In particular, critics say there is no financing for the 45 recommendations made late last year by a three-member government panel on tanker safety off the B.C. coast.

Jim Prentice, a former Harper environment minister who now is a senior vice-president with CIBC, says Canada needs to recognize that being in the energy business also means being in the “environment business.”