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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Workers at the Yellowknife Department of Fisheries and Oceans office received notices recently informing them that their jobs are at risk.

The department is set to cut 25 per cent of its employees working in its habitat management program, which was put in place to protect and conserve fish habitat. Yellowknife employees could lose their job, be asked to relocate or be redeployed within the department or other government department as 130 positions are cut nationwide, according to Kevin Hill, director of communications for the department.

The specifics haven't been determined yet. There are 28 staff with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans working in Yellowknife but it's not clear how many of those positions have been affected.

Kris Brekke, executive director of the NWT Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, said Northerners should be worried about not only the loss of jobs but what the staff reduction means.

"The cuts to the habitat program are the result of the removal of provisions for habitat protection," Brekke said.

"The habitat provisions have prevented harmful alterations, disruption and destruction of fish habitat in our streams, lakes, rivers and oceans. Now without that habitat protection provision only waterways deemed to be of economic, cultural or recreational value are likely to be protected."

For the NWT this could mean rivers, lakes and streams not commonly used by large numbers of people could be subject to development without any regulation, he said.

"So it's basically creating a hierarchy of our waters," Brekke said.

The cuts coincided with changes to the Fisheries Act presented in the recently passed omnibus budget bill C-38. The modifications have been widely criticized by scientists and environmental activists alike.

"We find it alarming," said Ecology North spokesperson Christine Wenman.

"The changes are weakening the legislation and we know from speaking to so many people in environmental regulation that, that's really the one very effective tool that regulators have to ensure that project proponents are using land in the most responsible way."

Hill stated in an e-mail, however, that changes to the Fisheries Act were needed and he expects their effect will be positive.

Previously, a large part of the habitat management program's resources were used to advise proponents regarding the design of their development project in order to reduce impacts to fish and fish habitat, he said.

"These projects are often small and many of these pose minimal risk to fish and fish habitat," Hill wrote.

"Restructuring the program will involve taking steps to substantially reduce the thousands of reviews the department conducts, through the establishment and communication of clear standards for the protection of fish and fish habitat."

The standards will allow proponents to have information on how they need to comply with the Fisheries Act in advance, he said. Also, high risk projects will continue to be reviewed.

Still, MLA Weledeh Bob Bromley is concerned.

"It's putting large corporations even more firmly in control and their motivation is profit, not the betterment of society," Bromley said.

"What this government is getting rid of is the checks and balances that it took many decades to fine tune and put in place so that it was effective."

Wenman said she has heard that 48 of the 63 fisheries offices for habitat protection will be closing. And what's really concerning is that there was no discussion on the topic, she added.

"There were hundreds of proposed amendments to Bill C-38 and they were all quashed in Parliament so these are really important issues that are far beyond the scope of a budget bill and ... the dialogue is not being permitted," she said. "That's what's really scary."

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