OTTAWA – Rural landowners can breathe a bit easier now that the federal government has unveiled relatively unintrusive proposals to protect endangered species, says an Ottawa-based farm lobbyist.
“It is the imposition of another set of rules but the rules could have been a lot tougher and a lot more difficult for agriculture as a whole to deal with,” Sally Rutherford of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture said Nov. 1.
“From a farmer point of view, the legislation is for the most part acceptable. It does not apply to private land.”
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Last week, environment minister Sergio Marchi unveiled the first-ever federal endangered species protection legislation.
It calls for protection of species on an endangered or threatened list, provides for a process of consultation to establish a recovery plan for problem areas and offers compensation to landowners whose ability to use their land is impeded by a recovery plan. The landowner would be invited to be involved in drawing up the recovery plan.
The legislation applies to federal lands, including Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration community pastures, and species that cross borders. It does not apply to land owned by the Farm Credit Corporation.
It does not give Ottawa the power to impose conditions on use of private lands.
The provinces have promised to pass complementary legislation and rules if they do not already exist.
Rutherford said that will be the next threat for farmers, since provincial governments have constitutional jurisdiction over property, including land.
“In every province, farmers are going to have to try to determine what exactly is going to happen,” she said. “It probably isn’t significantly different from what already happens.”
Rutherford said the CFA was successful in defending the property rights of private landowners because it worked in co-operation with other natural resources groups, including the Fisheries Council of Canada.
“I think that co-operation paid off in spades,” she said.
Constitutional protection
Environmentalists have been urging the federal government to throw constitutional weight around by declaring this an issue falling under the “peace, order and good government” clause of the constitution. That allows Ottawa to intrude into provincial jurisdiction.
They have argued a federal endangered species policy which does not give Ottawa the power to protect habitat, wherever it lies, is too weak.
But Ottawa and environment minister Marchi have rejected any constitutional power play.
It is the lack of federal jurisdiction over endangered species habitat on private lands which has produced the most criticism of federal proposals.
Marchi last week told the House of Commons he prefers to work with the provinces on the issue rather than push them around.
He said too often in the past, the issue became bogged down in federal-provincial arguments over which level of government has responsibility over the rock on which the species sits.
