Canada is Blamed for Risking Environment for Business Interest
Canada has allegedly polluted itself so much that it violated the rules which it is obliged to follow under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
According to the open letter issued Wednesday by the West Coast Environmental Law association, the Canadian government has been responsible for endangering the environment by exposing it to unjustifiable risks. The government apparently did the same to have a business edge on Mexico and U.S.
The open letter was written to a CEC advisory committee. Andrew Gage and Anna Johnston, the staff lawyers, state that there has to be specific financial consequences for weakening laws of the environment intentionally. One just cannot endanger the environment for achieving selfish interest in accordance with trade competitions.
The CEC is presently accepting written public comments to review the usefulness of NAFTA. This is a part of their celebration of 20 years of the non-profit foundation.
According to the open letter, even though Canada committed itself to following high standards for protecting the environment, it failed to do so. Mexico and U.S. were the other two signatories who committed to maintain certain standards as well. It was alleged that Canada gave in to the demands of its industrial developments and caused damage to the environment to achieve business goals.
It is up to individual countries how it is going to modify the laws to ensure maximum environmental protection. The main goal is to maintain the high standards even if laws are not followed to the T. The gas and oil industries in Canada have allegedly requested the government to lower its standards to accommodate greater financial gain by having an upper hand over its competitors, Mexico and U.S.
There were specific complaints against Canada that it eliminated numerous environmental assessments with projects and activities. Those include projects that have the possibility of making a positive influence on the environment.
Canada apparently defied the Kyoto Protocol Implementation Act by cancelling the sole law it had for setting targets to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases.