Question Period Note: Fairy Creek

Fairy Creek

• We are committed to taking action locally, regionally and nationally to recover Canada’s species at risk by protecting habitats, ecosystems and biodiversity.
• While provinces are responsible for protecting species found on non-federal lands, like in the Fairy Creek area, the Government of Canada will continue to work with B.C. to ensure protection for species at risk.
• In the meantime, we will also continue to work with local Indigenous communities who have asked for logging deferrals in some watersheds.
• We are also committed to supporting Indigenous-led conservation in the province, including through the establishment of Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas and other initiatives.

• Blockades protesting logging in old growth forest in Tree Farm License #46, in defiance of an injunction, have been in the news for the past few months. Protestors are demanding an end to logging in old growth forests.
• BC commissioned a strategic review of old growth forestry practices. The final report for that review was tabled prior to the last provincial election and the subsequent government has committed to implementing its recommendations.
• ENGOs, concerned individuals, and now Ecojustice on behalf of the Wilderness Committee, have used the provisions of the Species at Risk Act (SARA) as a lever to influence BC forest policy, pressing for protection of the individuals, residences, and critical habitat of SARA-listed species.
• In July, Ecojustice petitioned Minister Wilkinson to use federal protections under the Species at Risk Act to protect Marbled Murrelet, Northern Goshawk laingi, and Western Screech Owl kennicottii.
• Protection of old growth forests has been a key topic of discussion with BC in the context of negotiating a Bilateral Nature Agreement under the Enhanced Nature Legacy.
• During the last campaign, the Liberal platform included a pledge of $50 million towards protection of old growth forests in BC. ECCC has provided options for how that $50 million could be implemented.
• Ecojustice has indicated that they have a plan to use 10 old growth dependent SAR to pressure BC to change their forestry policies.
• Many species listed under the Species at Risk Act depend entirely or partly on old growth forests and older forests. These include Marbled Murrelet, Northern Goshawk laingi, Western Screech Owl kennicottii, Spotted Owl caurina, Southern Mountain Caribou, and a number of mollusc, plant, moss, and lichen species.
• ECCC is proposing to advance a multi-species recovery approach, in collaboration with Indigenous people and BC, to optimize recovery efforts in older forests. Early discussions with BC to share and possibly align priorities are under way.
• On 28 September 2021, the BC Supreme Court denied an application to extend the injunction against blockades in the Fairy Creek area. The decision puts additional pressure on the provincial government to find a resolution to old growth and species conservation questions in Fairy Creek, as well as the province more broadly.

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