Behind the Smokescreen

Behind a smokescreen of re-packaged Liberal environmental programs, Harper is not so quietly disbanding the very infrastructure and expertise that resulted in these programs. And this after the Environment Commissioner in the office of the Auditor General was not long ago mysteriously let go and not replaced. According to the Globe and Mail:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070315.CLIMATE15/TPStory/TPNational/Politics/?cid=al_gam_nletter_thehill

"The Conservative government has eliminated a section of Environment Canada that played a key role in shaping climate-change policies now being announced by Prime Minister Stephen Harper. . .

Frustrated bureaucrats said the move is an example of the government's zeal to wrest control from public servants over an increasingly politicized issue.

"The [policy] work now is being done by a very small handful of people under the direct supervision of [the Privy Council Office] and PMO." . . .

"Environment Canada bureaucrats said they don't even know who's responsible for climate-change policy any more. They said the now-defunct directorate was specifically in charge of overseeing all new climate-change policy, and that its 10 employees are being reassigned to various quarters.

"Even the people working here say, 'Who's really accountable for making climate-change policy any more?' They don't even know," said one bureaucrat who requested anonymity. "Right now we don't know who's accountable.""

Everything that Mr. H. does on environment in the public domain are Liberal policy and programs while he systematically pursues his no longer hidden agenda of becoming an autocrat (and that's putting it nicely) and dismantling our democracy.