The total destruction of information is an act of political conquest. It eliminates the ability to use that information to form an opposition in the future and it delegitimizes any current opposition.
I'm seeing at least two other mentions in Canadian press:
http://o.canada.com/technology/environment/harper-government...
http://thetyee.ca/News/2013/12/09/Dismantling-Fishery-Librar...
The 'State' was responsible for 2 world wars that killed close to 100 million people in addition to the 30 million or so killed by the Communists (in between the wars) and the 6 million killed in the Holocaust, and explained them under 'ideology'. And it is the same 'State' that is creating enmity and hatred between the 'Christians' and 'Muslims', as a pretext for future genocidal conflicts, a recent example of which is happening in the Central African Republic.
Confusing them is to suppose that groups of civil servants sitting around suddenly come up with the idea of killing millions of people and suddenly obtain the resources to accomplish those goals.
I have just read this, not being from Canada, but this Harper fellow seems to have an internal war with the institutions of the State in charge of the monitoring and protection of the environment and a budget deficit, so he went forth and dismembered the one in charge of water, despite what his advisers said, and what's common sense nowadays, that water ecology is in danger world wide after heavy abuse.