Ruling highlights need for broader safeguards under Species at Risk Act
A federal court justice has ruled in favour of environmental groups that challenged the Canadian government for failing to adequately safeguard the habitats of endangered migratory birds.
Lawyers from the environmental law charity Ecojustice were in court last fall to represent Sierra Club BC and the Wilderness Committee, contending that the government had failed to fulfill its obligations under the Species at Risk Act.
They argued that the protection statement issued by Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault in 2022 unlawfully narrowed the scope of habitat protection to include only nests, neglecting other critical habitats these birds rely on.
In his ruling, Chief Justice Paul Crampton agreed that the protection statement is unreasonably narrow and has asked the minister to reconsider its scope.
He also noted that the minister failed to take into account the difficulty in locating the nests of certain species, which would make nest-only protection strategies ineffective.
“In brief, nests cannot be protected if they cannot be found,” Crampton said in his decision.
Lawyers representing the two environmental groups have welcomed the court’s decision, with Andhra Azevedo of Ecojustice calling it a “win for the endangered and threatened birds that call Canada home.”
“For almost 20 years of the Species at Risk Act, federal ministers have avoided their legal duties to protect critical habitat while habitat loss and degradation have continued to be the primary threats to most of these bird species,” Azevedo said in a statement last week. “Now, the federal court has confirmed that the law requires the federal government to do more to ensure the survival and recovery of these species.”
Charlotte Dawe from the Wilderness Committee and Shelley Luce from Sierra Club BC echoed the sentiment, stressing the legal responsibility of the federal government to protect migratory birds’ habitats and the need for swift action following the court’s decision.
According to the Species at Risk Act, it is the duty of the environment minister to safeguard the critical habitats of at-risk migratory birds located on provincial lands that fall under the jurisdiction of the Migratory Bird Convention Act.
