Provincial governments are failing to protect species at risk, according to a new federal report.
As part of the federal government’s 2018 commitment to track and report on critical habitat protection for terrestrial species at risk, the Department of Environment and Climate Change released its initial report last week, the first of a series of twice-yearly reports examining species at risk.
The assessment reviews the provincial and territorial laws across the country, affecting the habitat of more than 200 threatened or endangered plants and animal species, including moss, flowers, turtles, snakes, mammals and more.
“What we see today is that there are still big gaping holes across the country when it comes to protecting the homes of our species at risk,” said Florence Daviet, national forest program director at the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS).
The responsibility for conservation of species at risk is shared by both levels of government in Canada.
The federal government is responsible for critical habitat protection for all species on federal lands, which includes migratory birds as well as aquatic species. The provinces and territories are responsible for the protection of the habitat of terrestrial species on non-federally administered lands.
The federal government can, however, use the federal Species At Risk Act (SARA) to put in place protection of critical habitat on non-federally administered lands in emergency situations, but it’s meant to be used as a last resort.
“The federal government can step in and they have stepped in, but they can’t do everything. (SARA) is not meant to carry all species at risk all the way across the country,” Daviet said.
“Because the provinces haven’t done their job, people are expecting the federal government to step in all the way across the country, which is not reasonable, because that’s not their job. … Provincial laws are supposed to be strong enough to stand on their own, but they’re not.”
The federal report reviews how the current patchwork of existing provincial legislation can be used to prevent the destruction of critical habitat of species at risk on non-federal lands, and examines the steps already taken to protect critical habitat.
Daviet said the provinces and territories committed in 1996 to creating their own species-at-risk acts, and while some have laws that offer some wildlife and habitat protection, they are not as strong as SARA when it comes to stopping actions that could destroy habitats, such as project permits for industrial activities.
The report found this to be true in the Atlantic region, where more than 30 different provincial acts govern the protection of habitats.
“In the Species At Risk Act, if you’re going to have a project on federal land that’s going to impact the critical habitat of a specific species, you have to apply for a permit from the federal government, and you have to prove you would not be harming the species … or that you have the mitigation measures in place,” Daviet said.
“That permitting process is not well replicated, if at all, in other legislation that the provinces are using to manage their species at risk. There’s more discretion allowed at the provincial level than would be under the federal law, so it’s not considered equivalent.”
John Jacobs, a professor of geography and climatology who is involved with the CPAWS Newfoundland and Labrador chapter, said his province has been waiting for a new plan for the province’s protected ecological areas for more than two decades.
“The government professes to be doing stuff about it, but there’s been really no progress that we can see,” Jacobs said.
“The priorities seem to be for economic activities ... that are in competition with or don’t support protected areas and species.”
Daviet said the bottom line is that the provinces must get their act together and develop laws with strong environmental protection to save species at risk. She said she hopes regular reports from Ottawa will begin to move things in that direction.
“The best-case scenario is that every six months we start seeing the provinces and territories developing a habit of protection, taking real steps to address these gaps until we have protected the homes of these threatened plants and animals,” Daviet said. “The current report, however, doesn’t make any promises about future actions to be taken, leaving the reader to wonder how long this habitat will continue to remain unprotected.”
The Chronicle Herald