¢ cS FEDERAL ENVIRONMENT Minister Lucien Bouchard is now saying he'd like to talk to people about his master plan to save the environment. This is the same plan that was drawn up in great secrecy by his staff, and that has bogged down utterly in a bitter internal power struggle being waged between various Ottawa bureaucracies. The only reason Bouchard is planning to talk about the plan at all is because it is the plan that needs saving now. ce B y last fall, Bouchard was admitting in the House that his department was scrambling to come up with an outline of its master plan, and that nothing had yet happened.”’ SE As for the environment, forget it. It’s on its own, Bouchard’s master plan was supposed to have cost $2 billion. It was supposed to have vaulted Canada into the next century in terms of seriously coming to terms with our environmental crisis. It was supposed to have featured major energy programs, massive reforestation, a tax on carbon dioxide emissions, completion of the national park system, an en- vironmental emergency response team, and, above all, a review of all major federal decisions from an environmental point of view. Just for the sake of perspective, I remind the reader that the Tories came out of the gate during the last election talking a blue streak about ecology. it seemed strange, the Tories talking eco-talk. But it later devel- oped that an Angus Reid poll (paid for, of course, by the taxpayers) had tipped the Tories that en- vironmental issues were at the top of the list of public concerns. Accordingly, Mulroney went in- to the election promising a five- year plan to clean up the St. Lawrence and another scheme to clean up Halifax harbor. As soon as the election was over, he ele- vated his old buddy, Bouchard, to what was to be the new ‘‘super- ministry’’ of the environment. Stepping into the job, Bouchard bragged to reporters that ‘‘en- vironment will prevail’? where it comes into contlict with economic gains, and that his departments would ‘‘have a kind of veto power’’ over any federal project. He promised ‘'a radical change’’ in the way Ottawa thinks. Time passed ...the mountain failed to move. By last fall, Bouchard was ad- mitting in the House that his department was scrambling to come up with an outline of its master plan, and that nothing had yet happened. The great Bouchard eco-vision was to have been unveiled by last Christmas and was to have been included in the Feb. 20 budget. Christmas passed with only a thundering silence from the en- vironmental super-minister. And when the budget came down, it was true that Bouchard’s department racked up an 11 per cent increase in funding, but it was mainly to pay for old, old prom- ises, such as the St. Lawrence cleanup, a program to destroy PCBs, and a start on a wetlands conservation program in the Prairies. Oh yes, and then there was a raise for the department's 10,900 employees. With this increase, the federal environment department's budget now basically matches the level it wus at before the Tories took of- fice in 1984 and slashed en- vironmental protection programs. We are talking here about six lost years, the last two of which are the fault of Bouchard, and alt the more unforgivable because they were supposed to be a time of radical change. Analysts say that Bouchard made a strategic error by develop- ing his plan as a secret budget document which could not be discussed in public. Thus, when cabinet resistance developed, Bouchard couldn't rally public support because nobody knew what it was they were expected to support. That’s why he is so eager to run around the country talking about it now — when it is too late. Bouchard is reported to have run into tough opposition from the tikes of Energy Minister Jake Epp, a good friend of the petroleum in- dustry, and Trade Minister John Crosbie, who thinks of the en- vironment, when he thinks of it at all, as a baby seal crying out to be bashed. The main problem, so far as Bouchard is concerned, however, isn’t that his staff is incompetent (although, obviously, they are), it is that his attention is elsewhere. He is, after all, a flaming Quebecois nationalist, who argued passionately in favor of leaving Canada at the time of the Quebec referendum. He spends most of his time be- ing chauffered around Quebec as Mulroney’s chief francophone lieutenant and top political minister, with responsibility for in- ternational conferences. He has warned that if the Meech Lake Accord dies in June, he will quit federal politics and return to La Belle Province to fight for in- dependence. With that kind of an attitude, I just wish he'd quit now and pass the job of protecting Canada’s en- vironment over to somebody who intends to stick around come hell or high water — soniebody who actually cares @ Construction worker killed From page 1 Vancouver Wharves, Adair had worked for Com- “monwealth since 1978, * Investigations by the RCMP, the Workers Compensation Board, the B.C. Coroners Office and Com- monwealth Construction are con- tinuing. Cause of the accident is unknown, — Vancouver Wharves expansion program. See story, page 10. PROPANE APPLIANCES & WOODSTOVES LTD. 2671 No. 3 Rd., Rickmond 1% ot Not Bedgenon) 270-3816 PROPANE FRIDGES, STOVES & LIGHTS (NEW & USED) * Tanks - Tubing - Fittings * Instant Hot Water Tanks © Propane Tanks Re-dated « Propane Freezers SERVEL FRIDGE PARTS Pieter Vanden Bos Branch Manager THE NO AFTER HOURS 645-8989 ARDAGH HUNTER TURNER Barristers & Solicitors Personal Injury (“086-4366 "| wn #300-1401 LONSDALE NORTH VANCOUVER, BC. We've got RTH SHORE TALKIN ON CELLULAR SEE WHAT WE HAVE IN STORE FOR YOU €Dollards 1830 MARINE DRIVE, NORTH VANCOUVER, B.C. 983-3335 Mon-Fri.: 8-5, Sar: 10-4 (located at North Shore Tire Centre) ° AUTHORIZED DISTRIBUTOR UNTIL IT’S TOO LATE BE IN YOUR BEST SHAPE THIS SUMMER! MEMBERSHIPS SAVE UP TO. INITIATION FEES ° Co-ed and Ladies ¢ training areas * Sauna, steamroom * Suntanning center e All at ONE location est-3rd, North Vani ' : Shirley Egan. . Cellular Consultant 252 * All levels of Aerobic Classes * Computerized Lifecycles ¢ Racquet ball & Squash Sunianning $2°/tan — min. of 10 ‘Open from.6am' ss G A OFF only) weight ‘ & whirlpoo! t ouver.