Birders,

On Tuesday, the Species at Risk Act (Bill C-5) was passed by the House
of Commons in Canada by a vote of 148-85. Although it is considerably
weaker than the Endangered Species Act in the U.S., this is the first
time that federal legislation on endangered and threatened species has
been enacted in Canada.

The legislation still needs to be passed by the unelected Canadian
Senate (usually a rubber-stamp process) and approved by the
Governor-General (the Queen's representative) to become law, but these
steps will almost certainly happen within a few weeks or months.

The importance of this legislation for birds and bird conservation in
Canada cannot be overstated. Finally, protection for endangered and
threatened birds (and other animals and plants) will have some teeth,
and many Canadians (and Americans) will be following the various steps
in implementation of the new law with intense interest.

The attached Canadian Press news story describes some of the arguments
that were made while the bill was being debated in Parliament on June
10 and 11, as well as recounting some of the long history of previous
attempts to pass similar laws.

Wayne C. Weber
Kamloops, BC
contopus at shaw.ca

_______________________________________________________

NEWS STORY
Liberals pass endangered-species bill after monumental political
battle

DENNIS BUECKERT
Canadian Press


Tuesday, June 11, 2002

OTTAWA (CP) - The House of Commons passed legislation Tuesday to
protect endangered species after a monumental struggle that began with
a commitment made at Earth Summit a decade ago.

The Liberals pushed the bill through third reading in a 148-85 vote
over the opposition of Canadian Alliance, Bloc Quebecois, New
Democrats and Conservatives, all of whom had different reasons for
opposing it. Environment Minister David Anderson won a standing
ovation from his beaming colleagues, as did Toronto MP Charles Caccia,
credited with forcing 11th-hour amendments to strengthen the bill.

The Species at Risk Act still must go through the Senate, and though
observers don't expect much opposition there, the upper house is
expected to recess soon for the summer.

If Senate approval isn't rushed through now, the bill could die in the
fall, when Parliament is expected to prorogue - a technical term for
ending a parliamentary session.

Two previous versions of the bill died.

Environmentalists who initially fought the bill shifted their stance
to one of cautious support after amendments forced by Caccia and other
members of the Liberal green lobby - Clifford Lincoln and Karen Kraft
Sloan.

"I regard it as a political miracle," Elizabeth May, executive
director of the Sierra Club of Canada, said in an interview Tuesday.
"It shows that democracy works sometimes."

Polls suggest the bill has clear majority support from the public,
despite claims by the Canadian Alliance that farmers and landowners
could wind up in court for accidentally killing a rare flower or
animal.

The Alliance failed to win their demand of mandatory compensation for
landowners who must curtail the use of their property to protect
wildlife. Instead, compensation is at Ottawa's discretion.

"Because we don't have property rights in this country we have to have
compensation mandated in the bill," said Alliance MP Garry Breitkreuz.
"Because it's not in there . . . anything could happen."

Bloc Quebecois MPs criticized the bill as an intrusion into provincial
jurisdiction but made it clear they support the objective of wildlife
conservation.

The bill would make it a criminal offence to kill or harass an
endangered plant or animal on federal land and waters. It would not
apply on provincial lands, nor would it cover migratory species.

"This bill gets a passing grade with the very thinnest of margins,"
said Kate Smallwood of the Sierra Legal Defence Fund.

Less than 10 per cent of Canada south of the territories is under
federal jurisdiction. The provinces and territories have agreed in
principle to protect species with complementary laws, but their
approaches vary widely.

The final amendments made habitat protection on federal lands
mandatory rather than leaving it to the government's discretion, and
changed the rules for determining which species are listed as at risk.

"Thanks to changes to the bill we now have better legal protection for
the habitat of endangered species on federal lands and waters," said
Laura Telford of the Canadian Nature Federation.

"Also, the critically important decision of who lists species as
endangered now appears to be far less open to political interference."

The bill's origins can be traced to 1992 when then prime minister
Brian Mulroney signed the UN convention on biodiversity, which
requires countries to review the adequacy of their wildlife
conservation laws.

Anderson said the effectiveness of the bill depends on co-operation
and partnership.

"It allows us to work again with the provinces and territories who
have primary responsibility on their jurisdiction and their lands, to
support them with science, to support them where necessary with
stewardship money."

? Copyright 2002 The Canadian Press