ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — Resigned Wilderness and Ecological Reserves Advisory Council (WERAC) co-chair Victoria Neville is concerned the provincial government might be setting WERAC up to fail.
Shortly after Neville and seabird expert Bill Montevecchi resigned from the council due to inaction on the Natural Areas System Plan (NASP), Gerry Byrne, minister of fisheries and land resources, asked the remaining WERAC members to release what they think would be the best plan.
“The minister has made a few statements that suggest the perfect has become the enemy of the good, and then he’s literally setting up the perfect as the enemy, and now he’s asking them to create the perfect Natural Areas System Plan unimpeded by compromise — he’s actually asking them to do what, in the first statement, he said was the enemy.”
Neville said prior to resigning from her co-chair position on the council, she wrote the minister several times to get the NASP released. That NASP, she said, had plenty of compromises, but WERAC was working with government staff to identify a plan that would be accepted to protect the province’s natural areas.
She said Byrne never responded to those letters.
Neville said she was “confused” and “blindsided” by Byrne’s repeated comment in the media that “the perfect has become the enemy of the good.”
“It’s WERAC’s role to provide objective scientific advice to the government. They’ve been doing that for decades, and so they’re not an environmental advocacy group,” said Neville.
“So, it’s not up to them to advocate for a perfect Natural Areas System Plan. They’re just trying to help the government meet their commitments on the Convention of Biological Diversity.
“So, basically, if it was an environmental advocacy group, the NASP would have looked very different. It would have been much larger, it would have included enough area to capture carbon, (and) it would have had connectivity between areas.”
Neville said WERAC members are volunteers who have experience in a natural resource field, and aren’t necessarily people who work in conservation. She said there have been members with extensive backgrounds in forestry and mining over the years.
“The minister has made a few statements that suggest the perfect has become the enemy of the good, and then he’s literally setting up the perfect as the enemy, and now he’s asking them to create the perfect Natural Areas System Plan unimpeded by compromise — he’s actually asking them to do what, in the first statement, he said was the enemy.” — Victoria Neville
She believes there “might be a little bit of spin” at play in some of the messaging the minister is putting to the public.
Meanwhile, Byrne said he asked WERAC to release what they feel would be the most appropriate plan because there was talk that the current NASP is “fraught with compromise,” and that left the perception WERAC would not support the plan.
“So, what I said was let’s reboot this conversation. I asked WERAC for them to release their plan which they would stand behind, stay by and be accountable for 100 per cent,” said Byrne.
He said that plan could be with or without compromises if WERAC sees value in compromise, so long as it’s a plan the council would deem appropriate for protecting areas in the province.
Current WERAC chair Graham Wood said the council will have a face-to-face meeting sometime within the next two weeks when all of the volunteers are able to get to St. John’s. Meanwhile, they are busy finalizing documents to release to the public on the NASP.
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