Mazier’s fact-free attacks miss mark

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 06/11/2024 (333 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s the role of opposition members of Parliament to oppose the actions of the government, ask questions about issues and suggest solutions.

There comes a point, however, when an opposition MP’s eagerness to gain attention for himself and score political points stretches the facts and distorts the situation to such an extent that it backfires, damaging his credibility.

Conservative MP Dan Mazier is one of those opposition MPs, and this is one of those instances.

Over the past several weeks, the Dauphin-Swan River-Neepawa MP has sought to blame the Trudeau government for the horrific fire that decimated Jasper, Alta., this summer. In an Oct. 21 post on the X social media website, Mazier claimed that “The Jasper wildfire was a result of the Liberal government’s forest mismanagement and gross negligence.”

Multiple media reports show that his claim is false. Those reports reveal that successive Alberta governments cut millions from forest fire prevention and firefighting budgets in the years leading up to the Jasper disaster. Even worse, the current Alberta government ignored dire warnings that many communities were at elevated risk of massive wildfires such as the one that devastated Fort McMurray in 2016.

In January of this year — months before the Jasper fire — it was reported that Alberta fire chiefs were becoming increasingly concerned about the absence of a feasible plan to fight wildfires, lower funding compared to previous years, and the lack of a viable strategy for the recruitment and deployment of firefighters and equipment.

Those facts, which are a matter of public record, are beyond dispute. That reality has not deterred Mazier from his dogged effort to shift blame away from his Conservative cousins in Alberta, however. Two days ago, he again used social media to blame the federal government for what happened in Jasper.

That same day, it was reported that Mazier also blames Parks Canada for the failure of the containment curtain at Clear Lake in August, and he’s accusing federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault of wasting more than $150,000 of taxpayer dollars on that curtain.

For those who are unfamiliar with the situation, zebra mussel DNA was detected in the lake in January of last year. Five months later, Parks Canada implemented regulations requiring boat operators on Clear Lake to not have used their craft on any other body of water that year, and to pass an inspection in order to receive a permit to use a trailered vessel in the lake.

Those regulations were opposed by the Wasagaming Chamber of Commerce, which produced a petition bearing more than 1,000 signatures demanding that Parks Canada rescind the restrictions for the year’s boating season. Mazier was outspoken in his support for the petition.

Despite the restrictions, which Mazier opposed, the situation at the lake continued to worsen. A clump of 48 live zebra mussels was found in Boat Cove last November, and water samples taken this past June tested positive for zebra mussel environmental DNA. In July, a live zebra mussel and several empty shells were found at the same location, while zebra mussel DNA was discovered near the main marina.

In response to the escalating threat, Parks Canada decided to install a containment curtain in the Boat Cove area, in order to hopefully contain the infestation to that area of the lake. The curtain was deployed in early August, but was dislodged by high winds two days later. The damage done to the curtain by the severe wind and wave action was so extensive that it could not be repaired.

Contrary to Mazier’s claims, high winds and waves are not the fault of Parks Canada. For more than a year, the organization has done its best to protect Clear Lake from zebra mollusks, and has encountered opposition on various occasions from local residents, business owners and the local MP — Mazier. The use of the containment curtain was a reasonable step to take in order to prevent the situation from worsening.

That inconvenient reality has not caused Mazier to tone down his opportunistic finger-pointing, however. He may be angry about the cost and unfortunate destruction of the curtain, but what would he have done differently in the situation? Is he saying he wouldn’t have installed the barrier, allowing the zebra mollusks to infest the rest of the lake, along with downstream rivers and streams?

He isn’t saying that, of course, because he would look foolish to do so — almost as foolish as he looks when he floats false forest fire facts and second-guesses science-based decisions made by those who are actually responsible for protecting Clear Lake.