OTTAWA – Canada’s environment minister last week predicted Canadian farmers and rural landowners will happily embrace a newly signed federal-provincial deal on protecting endangered species.
“There is a real bedrock support for doing the right thing,” federal environment minister Sergio Marchi said. “This is one issue where the people are ahead of the politicians and governments. This is an issue where farmers are prepared to put nature first.”
But a member of a national agriculture and environment committee quickly cautioned that support for the general principles of endangered species protection does not always translate into support for specific rules.
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Farmers will want to know the detail of how the agreement will be implemented, said Sheila Forsyth of the national agriculture environment committee.
“I would say we still have lots of work to do but this is not so far from where we proposed we go,” she said.
Forsyth was the committee representative on a task force which proposed a national plan for endangered species protection.
Legislation proposed
The political result, signed at a Charlottetown meeting of environment ministers two weeks ago, calls for federal and provincial legislation that will:
- Protect habitat of threatened or endangered species.
- Provide that “recovery plans” be drawn up to protect the land and the animal when endangered or threatened species are spotted.
- Designate the Canadian Endangered Species Conservation Council as the arbiter of disputes in implementing the national plan.
Forsyth said the farm lobby will have to be vigilant to make sure farmer interests are taken into consideration when recovery plans are drawn up and that compensation is available if they cannot use land because of the presence of an endangered species.
She said the federal-provincial agreement is a general document which sets out principles. “We’ll have to see how all the legislations get written.”
The federal government is expected to unveil its legislation in late October or early November.
Provinces which do not already have legislation have committed themselves to producing companion laws once federal rules are on the books.
