Canada: Endangered Federal Legislation for Endangered Species
12/17/99
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Title: Canada: Endangered federal legislation for endangered
species
Source: EXN, http://www.exn.ca/
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: December 17, 1999
Resident killer whales were more recently placed on the list of
endangered species as 'threatened'. Federal legislation addressing
protective measures to save endangered species doesn't come along
every day. Canada has never had a piece of legislation that deals with
endangered species at all. But now the federal government has unveiled
draft legislation geared towards what some scientists see as a
national crisis.
The draft, Canada's Plan for Protecting Species, hits on four main
issues associated with endangered species. It deals with listing
endangered species, protecting those species, protecting their
habitat, and providing financial support for landowners conservation
efforts.
The draft is a three-part strategy to protect species and habitats.
The plan intends to build on partnerships with provinces and
territories, to promote stewardship and incentive programmes, to
assist landowners and citizens helping to protect species and
habitats, and to initiate a proposed Species at Risk Act early in the
new year.
"The federal approach would emphasize voluntary incentives and
stewardship, including funding, as the primary way to engage Canadians
in protecting species and their habitats," federal Environment
Minister David Anderson told reporters.
But the interest groups aren't happy.
"On the whole, while there are some strong points, the proposal is
disappointing," says Stuart Elgie, lawyer for the Sierra Legal Defence
Fund in Toronto. "It has two main flaws. First of all, it allows
politicians and not scientists to decide which species are endangered.
This could undermine the foundation of the whole act. Secondly, it
leaves habitat protection up to government discretion. It doesn't
require habitat protection."
Critics of the proposal claim that discretionary power is seldom used
by the federal government for fear of angering the provinces.
"The federal government has the jurisdiction to protect any endangered
species anywhere, and it has acknowledged that it has the authority
because the extinction of a species is a national problem," says
Elgie. "The federal government has accepted that it has the
constitutional power to protect endangered species on provincial
lands, but in this proposal they haven't gone so far as to commit that
it (habitat) will be protected."
Anderson's draft says that the federal government will protect habitat
on federal lands, and will choose on a case by case basis about
provincial land. But it hasn't addressed endangered wildlife that
exist outside Canada. Migratory birds, other transboundary species,
and aquatic species for example live part of their lives in other
nations or in international regions, and in turn may only get little
or no habitat protection.
The U.S. has had strong federal endangered species legislation for
over 25 years which has been fairly successful in preserving species
at risk without impeding development. Over half of the species listed
under the American Act have halted their decline or are recovering.
Canada's lack of endangered species legislation puts the many
endangered species that migrate between the U.S. and Canada at risk,
according to environmentalists.
The draft plans to focus on means of compensating landowners for
preserving habitat endangered species need in order to survive. In
fact, Anderson plans to make it illegal to destroy any habitat be it
on federal or private land. The draft acknowledges that as endangered
species is a national concern, individual landowners should not have
to carry the burden.
Currently there are 338 species at risk in Canada, this amount has
increase by 31 since last year. There are different levels of
protection but within the range of categories (from 'special concern'
to 'extirpated') are a multitude of some of Canada's more famous
animals and plants. Favourites such as the Grizzly, the killer whale
and, monarch butterfly, Wood bison, Peregrine falcon, beluga,
burrowing owl and leatherback turtle have all been listed by the
[4]Committee on the status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada.
4. http://www.cosewic.gc.ca/
The draft is up for public review over the next few months and will
likely be in final form in February or March.
1. mailto:ereid@discovery.ca
2. http://www.exn.ca/