Question Period Note: Species at Risk Act

What is the Government doing to protect species at risk?

• The Species at Risk Act serves to conserve and protect Canada’s biodiversity.
• In 2021, the Government of Canada announced $173 million over five years, further to $155 million in 2018, for my department to support implementation of the Act, the transition to multi-species and ecosystem-based approaches and the Enhanced Nature Legacy.
• I will continue to work with the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Indigenous peoples, partners, and stakeholders to enhance protections and further recovery of Canada’s aquatic species at risk.

• The Species at Risk Act (SARA) came fully into force on June 1, 2004. Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), Environment and Climate Change Canada, and the Parks Canada Agency deliver SARA. The Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard is the Competent Minister responsible for listed aquatic species other than individuals found on lands administered by the Parks Canada Agency.
• Budget 2018 provided $155 million over five years to DFO to implement SARA and support partnerships to advance species survival and recovery.
• Budget 2021 provided an additional $173 million over five years for species at risk objectives, including $29.5 million for the Canada Nature Fund for Aquatic Species at Risk, a stewardship fund that supports projects carried out by external partners.
• This funding supports important steps towards a new approach to species at risk conservation in Canada - a shift from a single-species approach to conservation, to one that focuses on collaborative, multiple-species, and ecosystems approaches to recovery and protection.

The SARA Conservation Cycle
• SARA establishes the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC), an independent scientific body, to do status assessments of wildlife species in Canada. Following the COSEWIC’s assessments, the Governor in Council must decide whether or not to include a species on Schedule 1 of the Act.
• Once listed, SARA requires a recovery strategy for species listed as extirpated (no longer exist in the wild in Canada, but exist elsewhere in the wild), endangered (facing imminent extirpation or extinction), or threatened (likely to become endangered if nothing is done to reverse the factors leading to its extirpation or extinction).
• Recovery strategies identify threats to the species, identify critical habitat to the extent possible, and set population and distribution objectives. They are due within one year for endangered species and within two years for threatened or extirpated species. Action plans outline the actions to be taken to meet the objectives in the recovery strategy. Once critical habitat is identified in a recovery strategy or action plan, it must be legally protected against destruction within 180 days.
• For species listed under SARA as special concern (may become threatened or endangered because of a combination of biological characteristics and identified threats), the Act requires a management plan, including measures for the species conservation, within three years.
• The Department has been criticized for: not adhering to timelines set out in the Act; not moving forward quickly with listing decisions; not listing marine species; and not using the Fisheries Act to manage at-risk species that are not listed under SARA.
• The Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development is conducting four concurrent audits related to species at risk. The Protecting Aquatic Species at Risk Audit and Departmental Progress in Implementing Sustainable Development Strategies Audit are scheduled to be tabled in Parliament in the fall of 2022. The Protection of Species at Risk through the use of Emergency Orders Audit (Environment and Climate Change Canada lead) and the Species at Risk Recovery Audit are expected to be tabled in Parliament in the spring of 2023.

• The Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development is conducting four concurrent audits related to the protection and recovery of species at risk.
• I respect and appreciate the independent, objective, and systematic assessment of how our government is managing its activities, responsibilities, and resources related to species at risk afforded by such audits.
• In responding to recommendations, my department—working with our partners—will ensure that continued improvements to our government’s efforts to protect aquatic species at risk are implemented.