The Conservative government's plans to cut funding to wildlife monitoring programs will leave Environment Canada blind to future concerns, environmentalists said Friday.
"The federal government I guess doesn't understand that watching for dragonflies gives us an indicator of good or bad environmental health," Cathy Conrad, an environmental studies professor at Saint Mary's University, told CTV Atlantic News.
Conrad was one of several speakers at a rally held at Belchers Marsh, near Halifax.
"A salamander, say, or a frog, breathes through their skin, so if the water quality is bad, you expect the frogs to go away," she said, emphasizing the importance of ecosystem monitoring programs.
While there has been no official word on budget cuts from the Harper government, Environment Minister Jim Baird has said spending is shifting to climate change initiatives.
Liberal Environment Critic David McGuinty said the reports that the government is funding climate change programs by taking funds from endangered species budgets is "appalling."
"The truth is, they are not even funding climate change programs," McGuinty said in a news release this week. "They are spending the money on a climate change public relations campaign. It's a marketing campaign designed to make Canadians think that something is being done."
McGuinty said the Monitoring and Assessment Network, which observes changes in ecosystems, has lost 80 per cent of its budget, while the Migratory Bird Program, which monitors the health of bird populations, has seen its budget cut by 50 per cent.
"The budget for the National Wildlife Areas, a program that protects nationally significant habitats for wildlife and birds, has been slashed from $1.9 million to zero," he said.
Canada's Union of Environment Workers, whose mandate is to protect the interests of federal employees, said they take exception to denials that important programs were being cut.
"Program budgets that are being slashed by 50 to 100 per cent are cuts regardless of what the government may claim," said UEW's national president Bill Pynn. "The government's decision to cut programs not related to climate change demonstrates their lack of a comprehensive plan for sustaining and protecting our environment."
