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Prominent researchers and environmental groups are urging the federal Liberals to hurry up and repair what they see as damage to fisheries done by the previous government.
Nearly fifty signees in an open letter accompanying the brief, including noted scientists, the Atlantic Salmon Federation and the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, are asking Fisheries and Oceans Minister Hunter Tootoo to reinstate habitat protection and ‘scale up’ Canada’s Fisheries Act to modernize the 150-year-old legislation.
“It’s a huge relief to see the Minister’s mandate direct from the Prime Minister is to ensure that fisheries and their habitat remain healthy for future generations,” says Linda Nowlan, staff counsel for West Coast Environmental Law. “The federal government can act now to put the guts back into the Fisheries Act by restoring full habitat protection.”
Released during Canada Water Week and the United Nations World Water Day, Scaling Up the Fisheries Act recommends an immediate repeal of controversial changes to fisheries law made by the previous federal government. In 2012, four former federal fisheries ministers and 600 Canadian and international scientists decried omnibus Bill C-38 that weakened fish habitat protection and removed safeguards for more than 130 freshwater and marine fish species at risk in Canada.
Nowlan says restoring the section of the law known as HADD – which prohibits harmful alteration, disruption or destruction of fish habitat- is widely supported by First Nations, fishers, anglers, scientists, conservation groups and coastal communities, and does not require prolonged consultation.
Citing habitat destruction as the most common cause of species decline, the brief also calls for the Minister to modernize the Act, building on previous fisheries reform efforts that came to a halt in 2012.
Recommendations include recognizing Indigenous rights, strengthening monitoring and enforcement, and protecting ecologically significant areas to ensure healthy fish populations.
Agencies/Canadajournal
