© Environment News Service (ENS) 2000
October 24, 2000
By Neville Judd

OTTAWA, Ontario, Canada, October 24, 2000 (ENS) - Rumours were not the only thing Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien killed Monday when he announced a federal election. The November 27 poll means that for the second time, Canada's proposed Species at Risk Act will not proceed beyond its first reading in parliament.

"It is dead for this session," confirmed Johanne Beaulieu, spokeswoman for Environment Minister David Anderson, who introduced the legislation known as Bill C33 in April. As recently as October 14, Anderson had assured Canadians of the Bill's importance.

"The proposed Species at Risk Act is a priority for the Liberal government," he told guests at the launch of a C$250,000 (US$165,000) recovery plan for the threatened Marbled Murrelet, a small seabird found on Canada's West Coast.

Individual recovery plans launched under the government's Habitat Stewardship Program and the National Strategy for Protecting Species at Risk, form the large extent of protection for the country's species at risk. Four of Canada's 13 provinces and territories have laws protecting endangered species.

But environmental groups complain that limited provincial laws and stewardship programs are not enough, without the legal clout of a strong federal endangered species law.

The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) released the updated list of Canadian Species at Risk in May. COSEWIC is made up of 20 agencies and organizations, each representing federal, provincial and territorial wildlife agencies as well as non-governmental offices.

Approximately 80 percent of Canadian grizzlies are found in British Columbia and the Yukon. The remainder of the population is found in Alberta and the Northwest Territories. The Grizzly Bear has been completely extirpated from the Prairie provinces, where it was hunted to extermination. (Photos courtesy Environment Canada)

The latest Species at Risk Act would have given COSEWIC the mandated responsibility for producing a Canadian endangered species list as the basis for the wildlife protection and recovery measures in the rest of the bill. Currently, it has no legal mandate.

Among the 353 wild species listed by COSEWIC are widely recognized animals such as the grizzly bear and wood bison.

Lesser known species are also at risk of extinction, like British Columbia's population of the Tailed Frog, and Tubercled Spike Rush, found only in a few unique wetland habitats in Nova Scotia.

The Vancouver Island Marmot has been restricted to small patches of suitable subalpine meadow habitat for thousands of years. Over the past few decades, the species has disappeared from about two thirds of its natural historical range. (Photo by Bob Milke, courtesy Environment Canada)

Earlier this month, World Wildlife Fund-Canada and the Canadian Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Network (CARCNET) reported 40 percent of Canada's reptiles are endangered, threatened or of special concern.

Monday's election announcement marked the second time the Canadian government has failed to enact endangered species legislation. Bill C33 attempted to improve on Bill C65, which was introduced by former Environment Minister Sheila Copps in 1995, but died after an election call in 1997.

The 66 year old Chretien is running for his third term as Prime Minister. It is the second time the Liberal leader has called an election only three and a half years into a five year term.

Deputy director of International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) Lea Ann Mallett questioned the government's priorities on protecting species at risk.

"We were hoping the federal government would show some leadership on this issue," Mallett told ENS.

"Now, Canada's threatened species are left with no federal protection because for the second time, an election has killed legislation," said Mallett. "That's of enormous concern to us and Canadians. There is massive support among the public for meaningful species at risk legislation."

IFAW had been hoping for Bill C33 to be significantly strengthened to include mandatory protection of endangered species habitat, and to ensure that the endangered species list would be drawn up by scientists, not politicians.

"As the bill stood, there was no protection of species from harm, politicians had the final say on the species to be included and there was no system of accountability for the public to hold government responsible for endangered species protection," said Mallett.

"We would hope that whomever forms the next government will make a speedy reintroduction of meaningful endangered species legislation. For the moment we're back to square one."

Canada was the first industrial nation to endorse and ratify the 1992 Rio Summit's Convention on Biological Diversity. The convention requires each nation to "develop necessary legislation... for the protection of threatened species and populations."

The United States enacted its federal endangered species legislation under President Richard Nixon in 1973. More than half of the species listed under the Act have halted their decline or are recovering. For example, the bald eagle, which was nearly driven into extinction by pesticide poisoning up to the 1970s, has since been taken off the endangered list.

The U.S. Endangered Species Act protects the grizzly bear in the northwest, the animal's remaining habitat in the lower 48 states. Wildlife groups point out that if a grizzly roams across the border into Canada, it can be legally hunted.

Beaulieu told ENS that if the Liberal government and Minister Anderson are reelected, the Species at Risk Act will be tabled again next year. "Certainly, if Minister Anderson remains as Environment Minister, he will table it as soon as possible," said Beaulieu. "He remains fully committed to this legislation." Error: Unable to read footer file.