Canada gets it

From The Daily Bayonet:

Environment Canada suffers shrinkage
Canada�s Conservative government is doing what every country has to do, cut costs.

But Canada is doing it in style:

Canada�s environment ministry will cut or reassign around 10% of its workers, unions said Thursday, prompting fears that services like weather forecasting and environmental protection will suffer. Officials said the move was designed to help eliminate the budget deficit. Critics said it underscored what they portray as the right-leaning Conservative government�s contempt for the environment.

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Those affected include engineers, meteorologists, scientists, chemists and biologists. William Pynn, head of the Union of Environment Workers, said meteorology, water monitoring and enforcement of regulations would suffer. �The cuts are so massive that the support mechanism for the research that Environment Canada does � is certainly going to be challenged,� he told Reuters.

The new cuts follow last month�s already-announced cuts to Environment Canada.

The Sierra Club of Canada is outraged, which is a good sign the Harper government is doing something right:

�This is not about the deficit. This is about a blatant disregard for need to protect our natural heritage,� said John Bennett, the executive director of Sierra Club Canada. �It will give the polluters what they want, a toothless Environment Canada with no scientific or enforcement capability,� he told Reuters.

Right now I can hear the howling from south of the border from folks wishing the same could be said of the anti-business, anti-energy EPA.

I wonder when the US will finally wake up. We used to be a world leader but these days, it seems that everyone else has a clue and our 'Dear Leaders' are stumbling in the dark.