To Politicians

Have something to say? Just do it!  Write to your politicians and the bureacrats who handle the various files that affect our lives. 

Just about anything you might need to know about a provincial politician can be found somewhere on this site (including detailed monthly expense account records!): http://nslegislature.ca/index.php/people/members/sort/name/

Federal politicians may be located here: http://www.parl.gc.ca/MembersOfParliament/MainMPsCompleteList.aspx

A list of policitians who should be fairly directly concerned with this issue is attached in a pdf file below as well.

The NS Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture may be consulted here: http://www.gov.ns.ca/fish/

Federally, because fish pens go into the water and present an obstacle to navigation, the Department of Transport coordinates Environmental Assessments and responses to Environmental Assessments associated with aquaculture licenses for the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency, and then rules on whether a license can be granted as requested. To see what a "Notice of Commencement of an Environmental Assessment looks like (this one for Shoal Bay) or to search for other such notices, see http://www.ceaa.gc.ca/050/details-eng.cfm?evaluation=67678&ForceNOC=Y

To review the EIA (Environmental Impact Assessments) prepared by Sweeney International, an aquaculture service company, for Loch Duart/Snow Island Salmon and presented to the NSDFA (NS Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture) and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA), coordinated by the DOT (Department of Tranport), start here:

http://www.simcorp.ca/eiaceaa.php.  Plans for Shoal Bay, Beaver Harbour and Spry Bay are detailed across three documents for each of the three harbours (for a total of nine).

Be sure to look at our responses to these EIAs as well.

Dramatic changes to the Federal Fisheries Act have been rolled into an omnibus budget bill in Parliament this April, so watch here for additional comments as we start to understand how Conservative "streamlining" of the environmental assessment process will alter and diminish environmental protections to species, watercourses and habitats. (http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/arts-and-life/life/greenpage/federal-changes-to-fisheries-act-could-harm-fish-habitat-ecologists-148748385.html)

Other articles:

• HRM Councillors Take Positions on Open Net Salmon Farming