Thank you.
Thank you very much to the members of the committee for inviting the Species at Risk Advisory Committee to be your first non-governmental comprehensive look at the Species at Risk Act.
I want to first indicate to you that the fact that we've come to a consensus is quite a remarkable achievement. If you look at the back of our brief, it enumerates the groups that have agreed to this brief that we are presenting to you. I would like to draw your attention to it because I think it's quite important that you note which groups there are and the variety of groups.
We have the Forest Products Association of Canada, the Mining Association of Canada, the Electricity Association, the Association of Petroleum Producers, the Fisheries Council of Canada, the Cattlemen's Association, the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, and the Canadian Energy Pipeline Association.
On the environmental side, we have the Canadian Wildlife Federation, Nature Canada, the David Suzuki Foundation, Ecojustice, World Wildlife Fund, and the Quesnel River Watershed Alliance.
Finally, on the academic side, we have a University of Ottawa professor from the Telfer School of Management.
The important thing for you to understand as we do our presentation is that this is a consensus document. Therefore, we can only take questions on this document and what is in the document. We will all be appearing in front of you, for the most part, as individual organizations. For now we're here as a group presenting our consensus recommendations to you. I think that's just something we need to say up front, which is quite important.
We do consider it, though, a big success that this variety of groups has been able to come together to agree on a set of recommendations. For that reason, we need to stick very closely to our brief, and we will be reading it and trying to shorten it as best we can over the next 10 minutes or so.
So I'll begin.
Thank you for inviting us to give our opinion on the Species at Risk Act. As I already mentioned, our group is made up of industry stakeholders, environmentalists and academics, who have reached a consensus. Therefore, we will answer only questions pertaining to our presentation.
The Species at Risk Advisory Committee (SARAC) provides advice to the Minister of Environment, the Parks Canada Agency, and the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, especially on the implementation of the Species at Risk Act (SARA).
SARA advice is discussed by individual committee members with a view towards collegiality, cooperation and consensus. However, in recognition of the diverse nature of SARAC membership, consensus is not a pre-requisite to providing advice.
Therefore, this brief is representative of discussions that have occurred within SARAC since it was established in 2005. This brief highlights issues that have been discussed at SARAC meetings that members feel are important to bring to your attention even though there may not be consensus on all these issues by all SARAC members. It is important to note that federal employees are not members of SARAC. Our membership is made up solely of industrial groups, environmentalists and academics.
Overall, SARAC is very disappointed with the implementation of the Species at Risk Act. SARAC remains frustrated that key policies and operational guidelines and practices essential to the effective implementation of the act are taking too long to finalize and implement. The process to obtain and use SARAC advice is not being fully utilized by members of the government.
The basic SARA framework is workable. SARAC is of the view that once the act has been reviewed, there may be specific sections that may need to be amended in order to make the act more effective. However, efforts to improve the protection and recovery of species at risk and their habitats will also require a focus on improving the implementation of the act. SARAC is strongly of the view that regulatory certainty is in everyone's interest.
SARA appreciates the hard work to date by federal government personnel in implementing the act. SARAC stresses, however, that all interested parties, including federal, provincial and territorial governments, must cooperate, learn and adjust species at risk principles, policies and practices to ensure the ongoing protection and recovery of species at risk, their residences and their critical habitats.
We encourage federal departments to ensure fully effective and appropriate cooperation and consultation with aboriginal organizations, including the National Aboriginal Council on Species at Risk, and in appropriate circumstances, with wildlife management boards on assessment and listing decisions, recovery planning and other matters.
The preamble of the act states that:
the Government of Canada is committed to conserving biological diversity and to the principle that, if there are threats of serious or irreversible damage to a wildlife species, cost-effective measures to prevent the reduction or loss of the species should not be postponed for a lack of full scientific certainty.
SARAC believes that the application of this precautionary principle must be applied across the full spectrum of the SARA risk conservation cycle—assessment, listing, protection, recovery planning, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation.
My colleagues will give the rest of our presentation, so I will pass the floor over to Sarah Wren from Nature Canada.