Megan Leslie is the NDP MP for Halifax and serves as both Deputy Leader and Environment Critic for Canada’s Official Opposition. She has also held critic portfolios in health, housing, justice and Aboriginal affairs. Before entering politics, Megan worked as a community-based lawyer. As a founder of the Affordable Energy Coalition, she helped jumpstart some of Nova Scotia’s first comprehensive energy-efficiency programs.

In his latest example of ‘truthiness’, Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver delivered a speech to what one can reasonably suppose was a receptive crowd on November 27. Speaking to the Business Council of British Columbia, Oliver said: “Development cannot proceed unless it is sustainable and responsible. All proposals from business must be independently and objectively reviewed by the experts.”

Nobody would disagree with this; certainly it is imperative that the development of our natural resources is conducted according to the principles of sustainable development. Objective review is fundamental to deciding the merits of a proposal from any business, government or individual. It’s certainly an approach that New Democrats, and most Canadians, support.

But the devil is in the details — or, in the case of this Conservative government, in their definitions.

The Harper government has adopted an approach to language which is divorced from the reality of what they do. Big Brother Harper’s newspeak litters Conservative talking points.

In the Conservative world, “responsible” means expedited. Gut environmental assessment laws, exempt pipeline projects from the Species at Risk law and Navigable Waters protection, and from fisheries habitat protection laws, and you’re a general in the Conservative War of 2012 — the war on the environment.

“Sustainable” means unbridled.

“Independently and objectively reviewed” means subjected to a narrow set of liberal, ill-defined criteria, if not already exempted from review. If for some reason the project’s rejected, no problem! The rejection can be overturned and the project approved behind closed doors by cabinet.

“Consultation” means talking to a hand-picked group of friends who share your agenda, and perhaps posting a document on a website to solicit comments — with no disclosure of what the comments were and, likely, little consideration of them. No need to give any reason for the decision you were going to make all along, either.

“Committee study”, especially in reference to omnibus legislation, means an hour or so of overwhelmingly government-friendly witnesses which results in a committee report which reflects the position the government held before hearing from anyone.

“Open and transparent” means holding a record number of committee meetings behind closed doors, requiring the Parliamentary Budget Officer to take you to court to get basic information on departmental spending, and erasing pesky words like “environment” from websites that contradict your new reality.

“Accountable” means proroguing Parliament when your government is found in contempt for hiding documents from Parliament.

As for “the experts”, it is difficult to understand to whom Oliver is referring. The Conservatives have either fired or muzzled most of their scientists, shut down the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy, de-funded the Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Science, excluded anyone not “directly affected” from participating in the few environmental reviews left, ignored their duty to consult First Nations, demonized environmental groups and concerned citizens, and dismissed anyone who dares express an opinion that does not support their narrow ideology.

“Responsible Resource Development” is little more than the tag phrase for the Conservative War of 2012.

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