The federal government may repeat that it is acting to protect biodiversity, but the efforts made to recover species at risk “are insufficient”, concludes the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development, in a report published Thursday.
Nearly 20 years after the Species at Risk Act (SARA) came into effect, the pressures on wildlife and their habitats “have only intensified”, the report reads. . In this context, “the number of species listed in the Act has increased and it is expected that this increase will continue”.
As of December 2022, 640 plant and animal species were listed as endangered in Canada under the federal Species at Risk Act, which aims to protect wildlife species in the country.
The Commissioner’s audit also found that of the 520 species at risk that have been reassessed since 1982, 416 (80%) showed no change in status or were now in a higher risk category. . In Quebec, the woodland caribou, the St. Lawrence beluga, the chorus frog and the copper redhorse are among the species whose situation has deteriorated over the years, even though they are theoretically protected under SARA. . In the case of woodland caribou, critical habitat is not even properly protected yet.
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“Significant delays”
This situation, which jeopardizes Canada’s commitment to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030, stems from the fact that efforts by Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), Fisheries and Oceans Canada and Parks Canada to plan and report on the recovery of species at risk are “slow and insufficient”.
Commissioner Jerry V. DeMarco points out that although most threatened or endangered wildlife species had a recovery strategy, more than half did not have an action plan to promote recovery. Of the 257 action plans needed to support the implementation of recovery strategies, 146 have not been produced, 138 of which are ECCC’s.
The audit also found significant delays in the production of implementation reports that would report on progress towards recovery objectives identified in recovery strategies and management plans. Of the 399 progress reports that ECCC had to produce for species under its responsibility, only one had been produced.
“Progress reporting is about holding departments accountable for actions taken and showing whether those actions are having a tangible impact,” DeMarco said Thursday. “Without this ongoing monitoring, the government could miss opportunities to improve species at risk outcomes. »
“Imminent threat”
In another report, the commissioner finds that ECCC is not acting “proactively” to provide the Minister of the Environment with timely advice on the use of emergency discretionary powers available to him to protect species.
These powers can lead to the issuance of “emergency orders” to stop an imminent threat to a species. However, since the entry into force of SARA, barely three of these decrees have been issued, including two to curb the destruction of tree frog habitats in Quebec. The first was taken in 2016 in La Prairie and the second was taken in Longueuil in the fall of 2021 to stop a road project which had already destroyed a habit of this species. This project had been authorized by the Legault government.
The Commissioner also points out that the three emergency decrees were issued following “external pressure exerted on the federal government”. In the case of Longueuil, for example, the Quebec Center for Environmental Law and the Society for Nature and Parks of Quebec had taken legal action to force the federal government to act.
“The federal government has the power to intervene to counter imminent threats to species, but it lacks the initiative and policies to guide its actions,” says DeMarco. “Thus, the actions taken by Environment and Climate Change Canada do not reflect the urgency of the global biodiversity crisis. »
The Société pour la nature et les parcs du Québec hailed the commissioner’s work, which demonstrates “the bureaucratic heaviness” of SARA and “Environment Canada’s lack of proactivity in the implementation of habitat protection measures endangered species”.
In light of the Commissioner’s findings, the Trudeau government is committed to tabling, by the end of 2024, a “plan” that will detail “the timeline and the resources needed” to advance the preparation of recovery programs. , management plans and action plans.