Environment Minister Sheila Copps says the government is far from ready to relinquish is authoriy to protect Canada's ecosystsm to the provinces.
Despite recent reports that an agreement to do just that is in the works, Copps Sunday dismissed any suggestion that she is prepared to hand over powers to her provincial counterparts.
"There's a lot of work to be done on any kind of framework agreement before it will be signed," the federal minister said in an interview.
Copps accused "officials at a rather anonymous level" of acting against her wishes in trying to rally support for the agreement through the media.
As she spoke, provincia land federal bureaucrats met in Toronto with industry and environmental groups to review the latest version of the Environmental Management Framework Agreement.
In its current form, the agreement would transfer the power to enforce national environmental standards to the provinces. The provinces resent Ottawa's second-guessing over project approvals.
More importantly, the harmonization deal would require a consensus of all jurisdictions before new standards could be set -- the equivalent of a constitutional veto.
Copps and environmental gourps are worried that would lead to a weakening of regulations across the country.
The effort to reduce regulatory overlap and duplications has gone on for two years. The federal minister staved off an attempt to implement the agreement without further study of public review at a meeting last year with her provincial counterparts in the Yukon.
Since then, the draft agreement has gone through a public consultation period and government officials are expected to press for action when the resume their meetings today.
Craig Boljkovacs, a director of the Canadian Environmental Law Association, said it is widely assumed by activists that Copps has been fighting even her own bureaucrats on the issue of devolution of authority.
In an interview, Copps did nothing to dispute that suggestion, conceding that Environment Canada officials are pushing for a transfer of powers to the provinces because of the money it would save.
While some proponents of the agreement are touting it as a blue-print for further devolution of other areas of federal responsibility, Copps took the opposite view.
"We need national standards in the environment, perhaps more than any other area. There's an increasing need for strong national environmental policy, particularly because we're facing international problems."
If all the provinces approve the agreement, however, the pressure on Copps to sign will be enormous, Boljkovacs said. He warned if that happens, "you will never get another good environmental initiative."