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Conservation Council of New Brunswick
For Immediate Release
April 19, 2009
Fredericton - A statement signed by 20 groups is urging Premier Shawn Graham to strengthen Bill 26 New Brunswick’s new Species At Risk Bill.
“Legal analysis of New Brunswick’s Species At Risk Bill by Ecojustice shows that we are clearly behind other jurisdictions such as Ontario that have much stronger legislation aimed at protecting their endangered and threatened species,” stated David Coon, Executive Director of the Conservation Council.
The legal analysis warns against granting sweeping powers to the Minister of Natural Resources to decide the listing of species. “The Species At Risk Bill should be not subjected to political wrangling. The status of species should be decided by scientists and not politicians,” stated Coon.
The statement supported by groups across the province calls for Bill 26 to be amended and strengthened in the following ways:
- Undue influence from the Minister of Natural Resources must be avoided. For example, Bill 26 should limit the number of the Department of Natural Resources staff on the Committee on the Status of Species at Risk (COSSAR), the committee responsible for listing species.
- Bill 26 must include automatic legal prohibitions against killing, harming, and taking individuals from a species once that species is listed as at-risk.
- A clause must be inserted into Bill 26 that prohibits damage to the habitat of any species listed as endangered or threatened.
- Bill 26 violations should be considered Type J offenses under the NB Provincial Offences Procedures Act, which allows for fines that actually serve as disincentives against violating Bill 26.
- Bill 26 should be amended to incorporate the use of precautionary measures should an activity raise threats of harm to a species at risk.
“The previous N.B. Endangered Species Act provided more protection to the habitat of listed species than the proposed Bill 26 because it automatically included protection of habitat, and made a recovery plan mandatory for any listed species,” stated Tracy Glynn, the Conservation Council’s Acadian Forest Campaign Coordinator.
In 2008, Bill 26 was introduced into the New Brunswick legislature. The bill went through second reading in late 2008 and is now stalled because the Department of Natural Resources is preparing an amendment to the bill to accommodate a request for compensation for private lands affected by the Act.
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David Coon, Executive Director, Conservation Council, 458-8747
Tracy Glynn, Acadian Forest Campaigner, Conservation Council, 458-8747
Keith Ferguson, Ecojustice, Staff Lawyer, Ecojustice Canada, (604) 685 5618 ext 287
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