Few people would argue against making environmental review processes and regulations more efficient -- as long as they're effective. But changes announced in the recent federal budget don't do that. Instead, they make it easier for the federal government and industry to push through projects that could harm the environment and the economy, and limit the ability of ordinary Canadian citizens to have a say in matters of national importance.

In what Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs President, Grand Chief Stuart Phillips refers to as a state of "déjà-vu," chiefs from the Tsilhqot'in National Government (TNG) are back in Ottawa nearly a year after a federal government rejected a proposal by Taseko to develop a copper-gold mine on Tsilhqot'in land due to adverse environmental impacts. They are here to campaign against a repackaged proposal by Taseko that hadn't even made it to the federal review panel last time around because it was so flawed.

The chiefs were accompanied by Finn Donnelly NDP Fisheries critic who is calling on the federal government to halt the Prosperity project without wasting taxpayer money on another environmental review.

The Globe and Mail reports that, "The federal government's decision on a controversial $800-million copper-gold mine in British Columbia will be a precedent for industrial development in Canada, from the use of fresh-water lakes as dump sites for toxic waste to relations with First Nations."

"In a rare move, a federal review panel concluded late Friday that the proposed mine by Taseko Mines Ltd. will have 'significant adverse environmental effects,' specifically on fish, lakes and First Nations use of the land.

On March 22, Council of Canadians national water campaigner Meera Karunananthan and BC-Yukon organizer Harjap Grewal presented to this federal panel and made key arguments opposing the project and the destruction of the lake.