FREDERICTON – Margaret-Ann Bailey is failing as New Brunswick’s Minister of Environment, according to a new report on the province’s wetland protection efforts.
The Conservation Council of New Brunswick has identified 16 wetlands it believes the minister is allowing developers to forego the province’s Clean Water and Clean Environment acts when building near the environmentally sensitive areas.
The 16 areas CCNB mentions are not included on the government’s “Regulated Wetlands” map, although, the council says, the areas fit the criteria to be considered as wetlands under the province’s own Clean Water Act definitions.
“Roughly 50 per cent of our wetlands are not on her map, so we have one big problem,” says CCNB Action’s Freshwater Protection Program Coordinator.
“The Minister says these wetlands do not exist even though they are clearly there for all to see,” Stephanie Merrill says.
Last month, the minister scrapped the previous wetland map, in favour of a new system based on consultations she conducted with stakeholders around New Brunswick.
CCNB say the omission of these “significantly sized” wetlands, and their 30-metre buffer zones, give way for developers to skirt wetland protection laws and cancels out existing Environmental Impact Assessments.
“The Minister of Environment has a duty to uphold the laws enacted by the New Brunswick legislative Assembly to protect our wetlands, “Executive Director for CCNB Action David Coon says.
“To wish them away for half our wetlands because they have been expunged from a map on the internet is magical thinking,” Coons says.
Blaney said Wednesday she would examine those areas mentioned and would review the criteria for wetland designation.
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