The Canadian government will spend an additional $227.5 million on ocean protection over the next five years, Fisheries, Oceans and Canadian Coast Guard Minister Joyce Murray announced on Saturday.
These funds will be used to support conservation and restoration projects, as well as aquatic research across the country, said Minister Murray during a press conference at the Palais des congrès de Montréal, where the 15e United Nations Conference on Biodiversity (COP15).
“Canada doesn’t just talk about biodiversity, it acts,” said the Minister, noting that the area of Canadian marine protected areas fell from less than 1% of the territory when the Liberal government came to power in 2015. , more than 14% today.
Ottawa is committed to improving its understanding of the oceans, which are the planet’s major carbon sinks, the minister said.
Our waters have become warmer, more acidic and less oxygenated due to human-induced climate change.
Joyce Murray, Federal Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard
Horizon 2030
Canada is committed to protecting 25% of its land and marine areas by the end of 2025, and 30% by 2030, said Minister Murray.
There is therefore 9% of the territory to be protected over the next three years, and Minister Joyce Murray says she is hopeful of achieving this “by working hard”, in particular with the Aboriginal communities.
“There are a number of projects we are working on,” she said. But they are not so advanced that they can be included [dans le décompte des aires protégées]. »
Single-use plastics: the ban comes into force
A ban on the manufacture and import of five single-use plastic products will come into effect on Tuesday, December 20, Ottawa also announced on Saturday. The products in question are shopping bags, utensils, stir sticks, straws – with a few exceptions – and food containers “made from problematic hard-to-recycle plastics”. A ban on their sale will follow a year later, so they won’t be phased out until 2024. Plastic rings for beverage packaging are also subject to the same bans, but they will come into force six months later. These measures were originally announced by the Trudeau government in 2020 to come into force at the end of 2021, but were later postponed for a year.