Copyright 2001, Environmental News Network
October 04, 2001

Canadian grizzlies are found in British Columbia and the Yukon. A briefly imposed moratorium on grizzly hunting was recently lifted by British Columbia's Liberal government.

OTTAWA, Canada — While the rest of the world kicked off Animal Action Week on Monday, Canada, once considered a leader in safeguarding the environment, is still struggling to introduce endangered species legislation.Canada was the first nation to sign the Biological Diversity Convention at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, committing the country to pass legislation to protect endangered species and their habitats. Nine years later, it has yet to pass a Species at Risk Act, despite an independent body of Canadian scientists listing 380 species now at risk.

To raise awareness about the lack of species protection, the British Columbia–based Western Canada Wilderness Committee has embarked on a Canadians Against Extinction Tour. Armed with a giant inflatable grizzly bear and Vancouver Island marmot — two of Canada's endangered species — group members left the West Coast in mid-September. They were passed through Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, on Monday and will finish in the nation's capital, Ottawa, Oct. 17-18.Under pressure from environmentalists and political opposition, Environment Minister David Anderson issued a statement last month, maintaining that passing species-at-risk legislation is a priority.

"As Environment Minister, I am deeply concerned at the current vacuum that exists for species protection," said Anderson. "I am committed to passing legislation that will prevent the disappearance of Canada's wildlife."

Last February, for the third time in six years, the Liberal government introduced a Species at Risk Act, known as Bill C5. Anderson told Canadians that Bill C5 would "help to ensure that Canada remains a leader in the protection of all species."

The minister said much the same thing 10 months before when he was introducing another Species at Risk Act, only to have Prime Minister Jean Chretien call a federal election, halting the Act's progress through Parliament.

An early election call in 1997 halted yet another Species at Risk Act, which had been introduced by then–Environment Minister Sheila Copps in 1995.According to the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC), 380 species are "at risk" in Canada. By the committee's definitions, that means they are either extinct, extirpated, endangered, threatened, or of special concern. They include the passenger pigeon (extinct), the gray whale, (Atlantic population extirpated), the Vancouver Island marmot (endangered), and the marbled murrelet (threatened).

COSEWIC is an independent organization of wildlife experts. It includes members from universities and museums, Canada's provinces and territories, three nongovernment conservation organizations, and four federal agencies.

Currently, COSEWIC has no legal mandate, but Bill C5, if passed, will give the committee the legal responsibility for producing a Canadian endangered species list as the basis for the wildlife protection and recovery measures in the rest of the bill.

However, environmentalists have been quick to point out that it is still politicians, not scientists, who will have the final say when it comes to deciding which species deserve protection.

Bill C5 does not include mandatory protection of a species' habitat, said the Western Canada Wilderness Committee, which argues that habitat protection is the single most important provision needed to protect species at risk.

The group, Canada's largest membership-based, citizen-funded wilderness preservation organization, will drive its message home Oct. 17 and 18, when it will set up the giant grizzly and marmot on the lawn of Canada's Parliament building.

Anderson argues that stronger legislation does not necessarily mean better legislation.

"In the US, for example, the Endangered Species Act is touted as a strong piece of legislation," said Anderson. "But its legalistic and confrontational nature has ground species protection to a halt. Because lawsuits are consuming its US$6.4 million budget for the listing of species, there has been a nation-wide moratorium since last November on listing species for protection. We don't want this kind of confrontation in Canada — neither in the courts and especially not on the ground. In the end, this kind of confrontation only hurts our endangered species."The United States enacted its federal endangered species legislation under President Richard Nixon in 1973.

What Bill C5 does include is the following:

Prohibitions: The Act will prohibit the killing, harming, harassing, capturing, or taking of species officially listed as threatened, endangered, or extirpated and the destruction of their residences.

Emergency listings and orders: The Act gives ministers emergency authority to list species and to prohibit destruction of critical habitat for a listed species if it is in imminent danger.

Recovery and management planning: Under the Act, there will be a mandatory requirement for developing recovery strategies and action plans for endangered or threatened species. Management plans will also be needed for species of special concern. These will be carried out with provincial and territorial governments, wildlife management boards, Aboriginal organizations, landowners, fishing interests, universities, industry, and environmental groups.

Critical habitat protection: Recovery strategies and action plans will identify the critical habitat of a threatened or endangered species needing protection. Once identified, critical habitat will be protected by conservation agreements, provincial or territorial legislation, or federal prohibitions.

Stewardship: The Act will promote and enable funding for voluntary conservation activities and conservation agreements to protect species and habitats.

Compensation: The Act aims to compensate those who suffer losses because of prohibitions against the destruction of critical habitat.

In contrast to environmentalists, some groups have argued that endangered species legislation is unnecessary. Laura Jones, director of environment and regulatory studies at the Fraser Institute, points out that the last mammal to become extinct in Canada was the Queen Charlotte Islands population of woodland caribou 80 years ago.

The Vancouver-based Fraser Institute is an independent economic research organization.

"The last bird to become extinct was the passenger pigeon — and that was 86 years ago," wrote Jones in a column published by Canadian daily newspaper the National Post earlier this year.

"Hundreds of organizations and thousands of individuals work hard to protect endangered species in Canada. If Ottawa really wants to help protect wildlife, the resources that would be spent administering and enforcing an endangered species law should instead go directly to conservation," she added. "This would be more effective and more consistent with the desire of individuals to protect wildlife." Error: Unable to read footer file.