Feds accused of shielding public info after not publishing environmental waivers

HALIFAX – Environmentalists say the federal government failed for years to publish hundreds of waivers it granted to organizations that freed them from having to provide information on chemicals, organisms and other substances for risk assessments.

Mark Butler of the Ecology Action Centre in Halifax said Environment Canada only recently published online a backlog of more than 600 waivers dating back to 2006. They dealt with everything from aquatic toxicity tests to data on antibiotics.

Butler said the department should have made the information available in the Canada Gazette soon after a waiver had been granted.

“It’s a crucial step in an approval process which is already really light on public engagement or public awareness or transparency,” he said. “It’s either evidence of gross negligence or seven years of laziness, or maybe it just makes approvals a little easier.”

The Ecology Action Centre looked into what was being published online for its legal challenge in a case involving AquaBounty Technologies, a U.S.-based company that wants to produce genetically modified salmon for human consumption spawned in Prince Edward Island and grown in Panama.

AquaBounty received approval last November from Environment Canada for the production of Atlantic salmon fish eggs at its hatchery in P.E.I.

Environmental groups are challenging the department’s decision and seeking the release of documentation on how it was made. They say the approval was given before a waiver was published in February.

None of the groups’ claims has been proven in court.

The Canada Gazette says the waiver granted to AquaBounty waives the provision of data from a test conducted to determine the eggs’ pathogenicity, toxicity or invasiveness.

Butler says by not publishing the material, it hinders his group’s ability to track the progress of applications and information used to grant approvals.

In the AquaBounty case, he disagrees with the waiver being granted, arguing that eggs from its facility in P.E.I. could escape in the event of a natural disaster or a mistake.

“We would be able to say to the minister or the Canadian public that the government is saying they don’t need this information because the facility is biosecure,” he said. “We disagree.”

Environment Canada would not grant an interview, but in an email it says waivers from March 2008 to December 2013 were published on Feb. 8.

Environment Canada spokesman Danny Kingsbury said the delay was due to the department’s focus on its Chemicals Management Plan, which it launched in 2006.

“During the period shortly after the launch, departmental resources were focused on implementing the CMP,” he wrote. “The department, however, recognizes the importance of making waiver information available to the public and as such has recently published the waivers.”

Tanya Nayler, a lawyer representing the environmental groups, said the practice of publishing the waivers after a project or product has received environmental approval shields valuable information from the public.

“The public doesn’t know that an assessment didn’t consider all of the information that might have otherwise been considered and they’re not given an opportunity to challenge whether it’s proper that a waiver was granted,” she said from Ottawa.

“It’s possible by the time a waiver is published, when it’s been held onto for a number of years, a substance could already be in use in Canada.”