To the Government of Nova Scotia:

It has come to our attention that today, September 6th, 2011 is the deadline for public submissions to the Environment Act Review. The notification went up on the ns.gov.ca website on August 12th, a Friday afternoon and today being the deadline gives the public exactly three weeks to put together a comprehensive response to a review of an extremely important piece of legislation. It should be noted as well that the original date for submissions was August 22nd, barely one weeks notice at the height of the summer break.
If it is true that in politics perception is reality, then the perception here is twofold: either the environment is not a particularly important portfolio for this government or there is little interest in the public viewpoint. Such an important consideration as changes to the Environment Act should be given greater public consultation and widely advertised. That you did not do so creates the public perception of an apparent lack of consideration for transparency in government operations or accountability to the public.
We hasten to add that this is in no way a criticism per se of the proposed changes already published, but rather of the process and accessibility of public input. We did expect this government to do better. In this matter you are not living up to our expectations.