Letter, Environmental Law Centre and Devlin Gailus, September 2, 2010

With CoalWatch Comox Valley as their client, the Environmental Law Centre at the University of Victoria, and Devlin Gailus Barristers and Solicitors wrote to Canada's Minister of the Environment, Jim Prentice, and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA), to request:

• that all public comments received by CEAA related to the Raven Underground Coal Project be immediately posted on the
  Canadian Environmental Assessment Registry, and
• that the close of the public comment be extended for a full 30 days after the public comments are posted on the Registry website

CoalWatch regards the importance of posting public comments as an issue of fundamental democratic process. The letter explains:

Public comments should be on the website because citizens have a right to view public comments first-hand and assess their contents. Otherwise citizens are deprived of vital information that could enrich their views and submissions -- and government loses the advantage of people learning from each other and thus presenting better information to government.

When public comments are withheld from the Registry website, the public comment process is no longer a virtual town hall meeting where citizens know what each other are saying, and conduct an open dialogue with each other and government. Instead, the process is reduced to one where individual citizens cannot see what other citizens have commented. This deprives citizens of critical information that their fellow citizens have submitted. It leaves the concerned citizen isolated and uninformed, making submissions into an opaque Black Box of Government that is hidden from view.

Click here to download the letter to CEAA

Click here to download the CoalWatch News Release

Click here to see all comments posted to CEAA up August 30, 2010

Click here to view all comments submitted to CoalWatch