Are you among the “selected?”

Posted on November 11, 2010 by Dan Earle
TREPA recently wrote a letter to John MacDonell, Minister of the Department of Agriculture, relative to development of fur farming regulations. We reminded him that the Carleton catchment experience emphasizes the need to manage rural development on the basis of catchment areas because downstream effects do not respect political boundaries.

We asked to be included in the discussion of current drafting and fine-tuning of fur farming regulations in the province.  We requested access to the latest version, for study and comment so we could have input at the earliest point.

We received the following letter back:

Thank you for your interest in the development of the new Fur Industry Act Regulations. The regulation development process, which is now underway, requires considerable research of engineering and scientific information and advice from a variety of technical experts. This will take some time to compile.

We find consultations are more effective when parties have specific content to focus and comment upon; therefore once draft regulations are available, we will be contacting selected stakeholders to provide feedback on the technical and effective aspects.

If you have further questions about the new Act or regulations you may contact Bonnie Rankin, Acting Manager, Legislative and Policy Services at 424-4560.

Yours truly,

John MacDonell
Minister
Department of Agriculture

 

We have added the underline above to highlight the vagueness of process in development of regulations. Who are “selected stakeholders?” Does this mean that the people who live in the watershed or other “non-selected” experts will have no chance to provide feedback on technical and effective aspects? We will be seeking clarification.

For a review of the issue in our Southwest Nova Scotia area see:

www.yarmouth.org

This entry was posted in Public Participation, Water Pollution. Bookmark the permalink.