TAKE ACTION FOR BIODIVERSITY AT THE PROVINCIAL LEVEL!

Canada is a big country and when it comes to conservation and biodiversity there are plenty of places where you can activate. We have prepared a shortlist of provincial campaigns happening at the moment alongside our partners. This month we need all hands on deck and provincial legislation is shown to have the greatest impact on protected nature!

1. ONTARIO

With Bill 23 – the More Homes Built Faster Act, 2022 – nature, farmland and democracy are threathened, with 7,400 hectares of land slated to have protections against development removed. This bill proposes sweeping changes to the province’s natural heritage and land use planning legislation and policy. If accepted, it would amend many laws (e.g., the Planning Act, the Conservation Authorities Act), removing and weakening environmental protections and excluding the public from meaningful involvement in land use planning and decisions affecting their communities.

What you can do:

• Join POW Ontario at our Hike for the Greenbelt on December 10

• Stand up for nature and farmland by contacting your MPP

• Submit your voice to the Standing Committee on Bill 23

• Check out the Ontario Greenbelt Alliance action page

2. ALBERTA

Defend Alberta Parks was started to stop the closure and removal of 175 parks in 2020. The Alberta government stepped back from their plan, but the threat to Alberta’s parks is not over.

There are plans to update parks legislation in the future. If done with care, these sweeping changes can protect and preserve Alberta’s parks for decades. 

Now is the time for us to speak up for our parks!

What you need to know:

• Legislative changes to Alberta’s parks system are expected under the province’s new Crown Land Vision. Defend Alberta Parks will continue to ensure that all of these areas and the entire provincial parks system maintain equivalent or stronger protections under any proposed changes to park legislation.

• Defend Alberta Parks will continue to push the Government of Alberta for more information on how partnerships will work, who the partners are, and how partnerships will help to support environmental protection and accessible recreation as top priorities.

3. BRITISH COLUMBIA

B.C. is the most biodiverse province in Canada and the one with the most species at risk - and yet, unlike most other provinces, it has no dedicated biodiversity legislation.

What you need to know:

• Without legislative protection, BC's at-risk species and ecosystems are vulnerable to the impacts of logging, mining and other development activities

• Currently only 15% of B.C.’s landscape is legally protected for long-term conservation, and these areas do not include key biodiversity sites
• Due to lack of government oversight, the impact of logging, mining and other industrial activities on vulnerable ecosystems is almost impossible to measure or manage.

What you can do:

• Contact your MPP to express your support for biodiversity legislation that protect's BC's unique ecosystems

4. QUEBEC

The host province for COP-15, Quebec, has performed slightly better than the rest of Canada when it comes to biodiversity protections, with 17% of terrestrial area protected, compared to under 14% as the national average. However, this is still well below the 30% Canada has committed to, and the province's legislation overall lacks teeth to secure real protections for biodiversity.

What you need to know:

• Quebec's Act respecting threatened or vulnerable species needs to be revised to ensure it can adequately protect vulnerable habitats. This is especially pertinent as the Montreal Port Authority is proposing to build an $850-million shipping container terminal in the habitat of the endangered chevalier cuivré (copper redhorse) fish, a once-abundant source of food for Indigenous people and settlers alike.

• Premier Legault has indicated he may build new dams to increase Hydro-Quebec's capacity, leaving activists concerned that the Magpie River, one of the province's last great wild rivers, could be at risk, threatening Innu cultural heritage and the boreal forest.
• Quebec has not added any new species to its at-risk list since 2009

What you can do:

• Join POW, the Collectif COP15 and other NGOs at the mass march for biodiversity in Montreal on December 10. Email [email protected] for more information. 
• Contact your MPP to express your support for strengthened habitat protections in Quebec