I’ve been monitoring the Parlee Beach water quality issue for a few weeks now and it can be broken down into three large, intertwined issues. First is the poorly regulated, perhaps at times politically influenced monitoring and approval systems for development and exemptions to regulations, not to mention poor enforcement when violations occur. Our environmental regulations are weak, and the fierce politics in the Shediac area are often incestuous no matter which of our two prime parties is in power. It’s no secret. Just look at public protests at town council or planning commission meetings through the years over several of what some believe are politically tainted developments. One ought not blame, as some have, citizens for not being vigilant, or for demanding better. They rise up strongly and passionately every time (remember the ‘restaurant on the beach’ controversies) and every time we’ve seen officials, politicians and developers discount citizen concerns and wishes, reaching a resolution among themselves. It all seems political and driven by cliques. It also relegates legitimate concerns about the environment to non-priority status. Second, there is a huge issue of how good our environmental protection laws are and why – even now when one of our biggest tourism draws every year is seriously threatened by pollution – the official reaction is an anemic decision to appoint a committee. As well, the government won’t even release water quality test results unless forced to under Right to Information law. Why not? Norbert Cunningham: Parlee Beach: playing Russian Roulette with N.B.’s economy Share this article Facebook Twitter Email Citizens swim in that water. They are surely entitled to know how bad the water is. Our Minister of Health, Victor Boudreau, an investor in a planned large RV Park right on the polluted bay, says they need to find out the problem first. Green Party leader David Coon is correct that Mr. Boudreau should excuse himself from all debate and discussion of the problem because it looks like a conflict of interest. Yes, he put his affairs regarding the development in a blind trust, but let’s get real. He’s still a principle in the project and he surely knows any bad publicity or strong regulations that would close the beach contaminated with fecal waste will surely be bad for business, whether its in trust or not. In fairness, back during the Lord government, when a former Liberal MLA began filling in a wetland for development, never bothering to get a permit or permission, provincial officials correctly ordered him to stop. Then it got political. In the end a ‘deal’ was made, much wetland got filled in and protesters were again ignored. Now that’s back too, with the now deceased MLA’s heirs seeking to sell the land and a developer ready to buy it since it was given a rezoning that many question. Only an environmental impact assessment is yet to be completed. We’re talking hundreds of RVs for just two developments. And that’s on top of two other large existing waterfront RV Parks. It’s time to put a moratorium on all waterfront development until the source of the pollution is identified for sure. It’s a far bigger potential threat to our environment and human health than shale gas. It’s also time to quit the foot dragging. We know the problem. We know it’s bad. And we know it’s mostly human waste. We have the experts to track the source or sources down. We can also reasonably infer at least tentatively that the large amount of development has played a role. And we know if the beach closes for fecal contamination (it probably should have been already, but our standards are inexplicably below federal standards), it will likely be years before 350,000 visitors to the beach will return annually, if ever. Which leads us to the third broad issue: Parlee Beach is among our very top tourism draws. It helps significantly to keep our weak economy stay afloat, the spin-offs from visitors and cottagers is enormous, and without it, Shediac itself would be much smaller and less prosperous. But more than that, the beach is so well known, any closures would give our entire province a black eye. That is especially so when news travels that we’ve been allowing visitors to swim in water dangerous to their health, at least according to national standards. That’s a basic violation of trust. It could destroy the image and trust we’ve spent decades promoting, building and delivering. New Brunswick is a province facing a serious fiscal crisis, struggling to find a route to greater prosperity and stable new economic developments. If we were a private company, we’d likely have been declared insolvent already. Tourism is one of the largest, dollar for dollar, industries we have, right up there with forestry and fishing. Without some determined, hard-nosed and effective action very soon to correct the water contamination, we’ll be taking a high risk gamble we can’t afford to take. Norbert Cunninghamnorbc@rogers.comNorbert Cunningham is a retired editorial page editor of the Times & Transcript. His column appears daily.