For the second consecutive mandate, the federal government’s promise to enact endangered species protection legislation may remain unfulfilled.
Legislation was supposed to be approved in principle at second reading before Parliament adjourned for the summer June 15. Last week, time ran out and the vote was not held.
Then, environment committee chair Charles Caccia failed to convince other MPs that they should hold hearings during the summer recess, even though the bill has not been approved and sent to committee.
When Parliament resumes in mid-September, the committee will face a long list of witnesses who intend to denounce the bill.
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With opposition growing and an election looming in less than a year, it is increasingly doubtful that endangered species legislation will pass in this Parliament.
Parliamentary sources say Caccia is worried the bill will die, forcing the next Parliament to start over again.
A predecessor bill died when the 1997 election was called. Canada promised to enact new tougher legislation on the issue when it signed the Rio Convention on Biological Diversity in 1992.
Meanwhile, criticism of the latest legislative attempt continues to grow.
While landowners see the provisions for compensation and an emphasis on voluntary compliance as a good start, environmentalists say it is too weak. The volume of their criticisms has been growing.
They complain that cabinet will make political decisions about which species should be protected and habitat protection is not guaranteed, even on federal lands. Last week, in its annual environmental report card, the Sierra Club of Canada gave Ottawa a failing grade on its Species at Risk Act.
“We were shocked as it fell so far short of the minister’s rhetoric on the importance of protecting species and habitat,” said the report card. “As it stands, SARA would be an international embarrassment.”
Lacks teeth
That also seems to be the growing view of environmentally influential MPs, many of them Liberals, who sit on the environment committee and will be studying the legislation.
“Already, serious concerns about this bill have been raised not only by environmentalists and conservationists and environmental lawyers, but by scientists and industry groups,” Toronto Liberal MP Karen Kraft Sloan said in the House of Commons June 12. “Incredibly, many concerns are shared by these various groups … . Unfortunately, Bill C-33 is wanting.”
Fellow Liberal Clifford Lincoln, a former Quebec environment minister who introduced that province’s species-at-risk act, said he will insist on changes.
All opposition parties say they oppose the legislation because it is too weak. The Bloc QuŽbecois has suggested the federal legislation intrudes into Quebec powers.
With the government facing strong pressure to toughen the bill, landowners who have been supportive may have to re-evaluate their position.
The proposed bill will be on the agenda when the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association meets at its annual convention in Ontario this August.
