With the changing of the guard in Parliament after the recent federal election comes many people imploring the new Liberal government to backtrack on what the Conservative government had already done.
While that is a rather natural occurrence, obviously the Liberals cannot suddenly undo everything the Stephen Harper government has done.
Nor should the Liberals consider anything so grandiose as a complete reversal of Conservative legislation. We do not need a yoyo effect of parties bouncing back and forth of policies with every change of government.
It does not matter which party a person follows not every piece of legislation they enact is golden, any more so than they are all bad for Canada.
That is often the greatest shortfall of party politics; the fact one party rarely sees it as wise to nod their head in agreement with an idea put forward by an opposition party.
It lies with Liberal leader Justin Trudeau and his new cabinet to analyze what Conservative legislation needs to now be tweaked to make it better for Canada.
There are of course many suggesting what needs to be done. In some cases those suggestions should be heeded, in other cases quickly ignored.
And in some cases changes which might be warranted will be impossible too, depending on what condition the Conservatives left things.
There is, for example, little chance to do anything in terms of creating a stronger Canadian Wheat Board after the under-valued sell-off of CWB assets by the Conservatives.
And, like it or not, the new Trans-Pacific Partnership deal is here to stay.
In other instances the Liberals are going to face some serious lobbying calling on a return to an earlier time.
In some cases, they should hold the course. An example would be the move away from the far from universal door-to-door delivery of mail to the use of corner mailboxes, a system that will make everyone relatively equal in terms of home mail delivery.
Another issue where a lobby is already gearing up sees a number of nature groups calling on the government to announce an immediate pause in transfers of grasslands formerly managed by the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration (PFRA) until a plan is in place to protect their ecological values. The group includes; Nature Canada, Nature Saskatchewan and the Alberta Wilderness Association.
“We simply cannot afford to lose more grasslands -- the most imperilled ecosystem in Canada” said Stephen Hazell, Nature Canada’s Director of Conservation in a recent release. “Saskatchewan grasslands are critical habitat for threatened species such as Greater Sage Grouse, Burrowing Owl, Swift Fox and Ferruginous Hawk as well as providing a carbon sink for greenhouse gas emissions. Transfers of management responsibility of PFRA community pastures to the Saskatchewan government should be halted until Canada and Saskatchewan agree on a legally binding plan to protect the ecological values of these grasslands”.
“Given its election commitment to National Wildlife Areas, the new government should move forward quickly on public consultations towards establishing a National Wildlife Area for the 28,000 hectare Govenlock community pasture to protect wildlife and the carbon sink while providing for ongoing cattle ranching” said Jordan Ignatiuk, Nature Saskatchewan’s executive director in the same release. “Financial arrangements need to be put in place to ensure protection of species at risk and the carbon sink in those PFRA grasslands already transferred to the province. Manitoba has moved in this direction on its 24 PFRA community pastures, now it is time for Saskatchewan and Canada to plan how to protect the ecological values of the 62 PFRA community pastures covering 720,000 hectares in our province”.
While such issues are rarely black and white, this is one which government needs to get right. There is great value to our wildlife resource, to their habitat, and to grass for grazing. It needs to be properly managed.
That is one of the roles of the federal government, to protect natural resources such as wildlife and waterways, and fauna. In general, the Conservatives have fallen far short of that responsibility, so this country would be well-served if the Liberals pause to assess if they can improve in areas such as the future of PFRA grasslands.
Calvin Daniels is Assistant Editor of Yorkton This Week.
