Morse’s environmental shakeup

The shocker in Rodney MacDonald’s recent cabinet shuffle is
the replacement of environment minister Mark Parent with veteran David
Morse, who leaves natural resources. It’s a sign of an urgent
environmental crisis that Morse considers this a promotion. As Ecology
Action Centre director Mark Butler puts it: “Ten years ago, that’s a
demotion.”

After a week’s delay, Morse hit the ground running with the release
of the long-awaited (and four times delayed, nine months overdue)
Climate Change Action Plan.

The plan draws mixed reactions. “If this were 2004 this would be a
great plan,” says NDP environment critic Graham Steele. “They are
planning a lot of things that should have been done long ago. There is
no budget allocated; everything is going to be decided later.”

After the launch of the action plan, Morse calls me from his
hands-free on his way back to the Valley. “It shows you the premier
believes in recycling,” he jokes, referring to his previous stint at
the environment helm, from 2001-2002, when it was a departmental
lightweight.

Morse says the combination of his previous experience in Environment
and his years in Natural Resources give him the cred he needs to handle
“an important and somewhat delicate portfolio.” But the timing of the
change and the popularity of Parent, have left the opposition and the
environmental community shaking their heads.

“Parent was good to deal with,” says Keith Colwell, Liberal
environment critic. The only reason for the shuffle, he adds, is that
the premier “wanted to realign some people to maintain their seats.” In
other words, less popular MLAs are promoted to increase their chances
at re-election.

NDP environment critic Graham Steele is reserved in his
acknowledgement of Parent’s legacy. “He meant well and he was
personally committed, but I don’t think he accomplished a great deal,”
Steele says. “But if it has to be a Conservative minister, it should be
Parent.”

EAC’s Mark Butler wonders, “was Rodney MacDonald uncomfortable that
Parent was taking his job seriously?” He partially credits Parent for
transforming the ministry from a “weak underfoot body” into one with
teeth. He is reserving judgement on Morse until he sees him in action,
saying only, “he seems sincerely concerned.”

As for Morse, he posits that Parent “was a victim of his own
success,” acknowledging the “incredible job he did.” Morse says the
premiere wanted an experienced presence in Environment, and with 10
years as an MLA, he is more experienced than the rest of cabinet.

On his own track record, Morse says he laid the foundation in 2002
for much current work on environment. “My fingerprints are all over
this document,” he says of Parent’s Climate Change Action Plan.
“I initiated limits on air pollutants the first time I was environment
minister.”

Morse notes that he helped initiate a provincial-federal panel to
review plans by Bilcon for a mega-quarry in Digby. The panel listened
to objections from the community and rejected the proposal. Dr. Janet
Eaton, a veteran activist who petitioned Morse about the quarry seven
years ago, calls Morse “someone who will listen to his constituents and
weigh their opinions fairly.”

What rankles environmentalists most about their new minister is his
stance on uranium mining. He has repeatedly pointed to a 1994 report by
staff at the departments of Natural Resources, Health and Environment
that “unanimously came to conclude that uranium can be mined safely
under existing federal regulations.” Morse adds that uranium mining
would be safe and good for our economy. Yet, he says he “recommended to
the premiere that the province’s moratorium on mining be kept in place”
because public opinion does not support a change.

According to Gretchen Fitzgerald, director of Sierra Club Atlantic,
“dealing with uranium waste remains an issue that the industry has not
overcome.” She quotes judge McCleave, whose 1982 report catalyzed the
uranium moratorium and who wrote, “the decay of uranium takes place
over a long time, thousands more times than any civilization for which
we have history.”

Steele feels that Morse’s uranium stance shows he is “committed to
development at the expense of environment. It’s not comforting to have
someone who says these things as minister of environment.”

Morse contends that his lifelong commitment to nature makes him the
man for the job. “For the boy who grew up in south end Halifax and knew
every square inch of Point Pleasant Park,” he says, “to become
environment minister for the second time is a great honour. It comes
naturally to me.”

Is Morse a breath of fresh air or a stagnant stench
left over from the ’90s? Let Chris Benjamin know at chrisb@thecoast.ca.

This article appears in Jan 22-28, 2009.