Critics take aim at Canada's endangered species act
Copyright 2000, Environmental News Network
August 21, 2000
By Margot Higgins
Canada's first federal endangered species legislation, introduced in April, will fail to come to the rescue of endangered species, conservation groups say.
A report card filed by a coalition of conservation groups documents, for the fourth consecutive year, holes in the safety net of laws aimed at protecting endangered species in Canada.
At the bottom of the class, the federal government received a grade of D- for its proposed Species at Risk Act.
"The bill as it stands now is written in the weakest way possible," said Kevin Scott, director of programs in Canada for Defenders of Wildlife.
The plight of Canada's endangered woodland caribou points to the flaws in Canada's existing and draft endangered species legislation, he said.
Biologists in Canada have warned since the early 1970s that woodland caribou populations are in trouble.
Although the country's scientific agency, the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada, includes the boreal population of woodland caribou on the federal species-at-risk list, the federal government has not protected a single area of core woodland caribou habitat from resource development.
Conservation groups are critical of the government's recent approval of an Alberta Energy Company oil sands plant, which they claim has caused intense damage to high quality caribou habitat in the Cold Lake Air Weapons Range.
Conservationists point to a list of scientific studies which found that caribou avoid roads, wells and seismic lines — all disturbances caused by the oil and gas industry — throughout their range in Canada.A request for an environmental review of the Alberta oil development by the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society was denied by the province's regulatory agency.
"Without good legislation, there is no means for citizens to hold governments accountable for saving habitat for endangered wildlife, even on lands where governments share jurisdiction," said Sam Gunsch, a spokesperson for the organization.
Conservationists cite the plight of the woodland caribou as an example of gaps in the Species at Risk Act.
Conservationists say the caribou situation highlights three major gaps in the Species at Risk Act: habitat protection, scientific listing of species and the power to hold the government accountable for the law.
"Instead of listening to COSEWIC, which has listed 341 species, they are going to start at ground zero," Scott said. "Politicians will decide (which species get listed)."
The Defenders of Wildlife highlights a number of differences between the Canadian and U.S. endangered species acts.
If a species is "endangered" in the United States, it requires listing, Scott explains. In Canada, under the proposed Species at Risk Act, the listing would be left to the discretion of Canada's legislative cabinet.
While the U.S. endangered species act allows citizens to sue the government if endangered species are not adequately protected, the Canadian legislation does not give citizens any legal basis to check on the government's progress.
Scott said that there is time left to make improvements to the existing legislation. The legislation is expected to go before a standing committee in September, and the public will be allowed to participate in the process. "If there is enough public outcry, we should see changes."