Wonderful wilderness to be protected, but lingering Conservation incompetence a concern

The Manitoba government has plans for a large new protected area—one of the first in south-central Manitoba in more than a decade—but bureaucratic bungling has kept the proposal from the public’s view, and the public comment period is now closed.

“The new Red Deer Wildlife Management Area, encompassing the Red Deer Lake and Overflowing River region, is an amazing wilderness, and is high on the Wilderness Committee’s Conservation Hotspots list,” said Eric Reder, Campaign Director for the Wilderness Committee. “That plans are underway to begin protecting the region is fabulous news, and is protected areas progress that Manitobans have been asking for.”

The Red Deer Wildlife Management Area is larger than Duck Mountain Provincial Park, although not all of it will be protected from development. Two small Ecological Reserves (ERs) are also proposed, Big Island and Lake Winnipegosis Salt Flats ERs. ERs afford the highest level of protection from disturbance.

“Unfortunately, this proposal is tempered by the continuing bungling of the Conservation department, demonstrated by the missing public announcement of these proposals and the missed public consultation period,” said Reder.

Most public comment periods are initiated with a letter sent from Manitoba Conservation to interested parties, with a government news release, and with a posting to the Public Consultations section on the Conservation website. For these new proposals, none of this occurred.

Over the last two years, the Wilderness Committee has contacted the Protected Areas branch on countless occasions, asking for information about specific Areas of Special Interest (ASIs), but has received no information. This week, the Conservation Minister’s office contacted the Wilderness Committee to say the requested data was online. As expected, the data was not online, but a new section has been added to the website, called New Proposed Protected Areas. The information posted here provides data about the new proposals, and also states the public comment period ended on October 30, 2010. Both the fact sheet and the comment sheet on the new proposals were completed by October 1, but it appears the information didn’t go online until December 13.

“We don’t know what is causing the problems at Conservation,” said Reder. “The Protected Areas branch is chronically underfunded and understaffed, to be sure. Perhaps there is not enough political will? Or perhaps there is incompetence lingering in the bureaucracy.”

The Wilderness Committee is calling on Conservation Minster Blaikie to reopen the public consultation period on these new protected area proposals, and allow comments until January 28, 2011.

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For more information contact Eric Reder, (204) 997-8584