Shining a light on projects affecting the environment: do we get a choice?

Access-to-information records indicated that Parks Canada had put forward a business case to spend more than $1-million to redo and widen the three-kilometre access trail to a private boat tour operator well before the public knew some of the redesigned trail features.

Parks Canada, while downplaying the route as a road, had hoped the expanded trail would lead to a "reasonably priced" private bus shuttle service operating on the gravel roadway, but that has not as yet materialized. Initial work proceeded in 2017 and by the time critics twigged in, work was well underway. By 2018, the access trail work to the iconic fjord in 2018 included uprooting parts of a bog and vegetation and bringing in the crushed stone for the widened route, writes Ken Rubin. Photograph courtesy of Commons Wikimedia

Opinion

BY KEN RUBIN

September 16, 2019

OTTAWA—The environment will be a major issue this October. But one example access-to-information records reveal is how infrastructure funds and the chance of increased government revenues can predetermine the outcome when there is no real public transparency or input. Access-to-information record...

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