Mother Earth needs a helping hand

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The National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy, set up by the federal government to research sustainable development of non-renewable resources, is swamped by the number of grass-roots issues brought before it. Everything from disappearing trees and fish to the cost of doing business and trying to prosper in a fiscal climate that at times is as cold as the Mackenzie Valley in January. Their task force of northern stakeholders running the Aboriginal Communities and Non-renewable Resource Development Program was supposed to find ways Aboriginal people, industry, government and environmentalists can make sure resource development over the next decade or so supports economic development in Aboriginal communities without wrecking the environment or dumping on Native culture more than it already has. Resource development meaning activities such as diamond mining and oil and gas exploration.

The big picture is that these issues affect all of humanity, ultimately, regardless of where we live, and the problems affect us equally too. And because they do, we'd better not rely on a handful of appointees to conduct another study and table a few reports and hope everything will be hunky-dory. For one thing, NRTEE has already found it has bitten off more than its 24 members can chew.

With Native people across the country increasingly frightened and angry at the legacy of environmental devastation they already bear - everything from persistant organic pollutants (POPs) entering the food chain and wreaking genetic havoc, to destruction of forests sanctioned by provincial and federal governments and even the courts - NRTEE's task force found the complaints too many and the job too big. It had to narrow its focus only to the Aboriginal communities of the Western Arctic.

Co-chairs Cindy Kenny-Gilday and Joseph O'Neill have undertaken a formidable job in ensuring more than 150 interest groups (so far) aim for consensus, as they balance the needs of hunter-gatherers and fragile ecosystems against the needs of the unemployed and profit-driven developers. Our hat is off to everyone at the table trying to resolve huge eco-problems and create opportunities for all.

Trouble is, while well-intentioned groups are trying to decide truck-before-caribou or caribou-before-truck, the environmental clock is ticking. That means instead of waiting until the forests are finished and the last trap is found in a museum, some people are implementing their own solutions.

It shouldn't have to be. A government that purports to lead should not be spending millions to prop up its ecologically correct stance at the same time as it is allowing provinces to do an end run around treaties and regulations that have environentally protective measures built in. Neither should it still be bungling Aboriginal/non-Aboriginal relations over a few lobster traps at home, while spending our money to posture abroad.

For example, Canada has demonstrated a less than mediocre level of achievement in meeting its environmental targets since the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. And it has consistently foot-dragged when it comes to standing up to the U.S. and other environmental Neanderthals. So even though the first week of spring finds Canada taking a stand on banning POPs at the 120-nation Bonn convention and putting up $20 million of our money overseas to make it so, remember this is a drop in the bucket. And although a few Inuit who are already gravely affected by toxic chemicals in the food they have no choice but to eat will attend the conference, we need to remember they don't drive foreign policy. By the time you read this, you will know who does.