By PETER MAZEREEUW      
Bill C-69, a bugaboo for conservative politicians and a target for environmentalists, is in for a long, rough ride in the Senate.

By Holly Lake
iPolitics

Most marine refuges in Canada don’t meet globally accepted protection standards — some of which this country had a hand in creating.

That’s the finding of a new report published Wednesday by SeaBlue Canada, a coalition of six national conservation organizations that includes the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, the David Suzuki Foundation, the Ecology Action Centre, Oceans North, West Coast Environmental Law, and the World Wildlife Fund Canada.

While Canada has come a long way in a short time, having designated 7.9 per cent of its oceans as protected since 2015, the report shows stronger standards are needed to better protect biodiversity. SeaBlue found that only 40 per cent of the areas closed under the federal Fisheries Act met the highly protected marine refuge criteria. The other 60 per cent need improvements to meet international standards.

Even when measured against Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO)’s own guidance, 27 per cent of marine refuges were unlikely to meet the criteria to be counted as protected.

The group reviewed all 54 areas protected through the Fisheries Act and assessed how these areas met DFO’s own criteria, as well as those set by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and guidance adopted last fall at the Convention on Biological Diversity(CBD).

Canada is a party to the convention, which set a target in 2010 to protect 10 per cent of the world’s marine areas by 2020. This was to be accomplished by creating marine protected areas (MPAs), as well as what’s known as other effective area-based measures (OECMs). Initially, little guidance existed to determine those other measures, since they’re different from full MPAs, and not protected under MPA legislation.

(In Canada, marine refuges can be established relatively quickly, compared to a marine protected area, which can currently take between five and 10 years to create under the Oceans Act and National Marine Conservation Areas Act.)

In recent years, however, CBD has been trying to come up with guidance for refuges, and, last fall, it was adopted when parties to the Convention gathered in Egypt. Meeting CBD criteria determines if a site can count as “protected” at an international level. Among the criteria? That a refuge should be effective.

“Effective protection of biodiversity sort of precludes industrial activity,” said Susanna Fuller of Oceans North, a co-author of the report.

And yet, of the 7.9 per cent of marine areas Canada has protected, more than half are marine refuges created through measures in the Fisheries Act. That means that while the impact of commercial fishing is restricted in many of them, the legislation can’t prohibit mining or oil and gas activity.

“That’s our biggest problem in Canada,” Fuller said. “It doesn’t make any sense to preclude one industrial activity and allow another that has similar impacts.”

Last November, new oil and gas leases were awarded by the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board for areas that fall within the Northeast Newfoundland Slope Conservation Area. Designated in December 2017 by the federal government, it’s one of the largest marine refuges in Canadian waters — and the largest single closure on Canada’s East Coast — covering 46,833 sq. kilometres.

The refuge was created under the Fisheries Act, and prohibits all bottom-contact fishing activities within its boundary to protect sensitive sponges and corals — which are considered vital fish habitat.

This past December, criticism was swift after the Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board launched the bidding process for two exploration licences to look for oil in the waters around the province’s iconic Sable Island. That process was launched just days after Parks Canada finished a survey of how to manage a national park reserve there.

“Let’s just say Atlantic Canada is being a bit recalcitrant on the federal government’s objectives (for) marine conservation,” Fuller said. “They see it as inhibiting economic development, but we can well protect 10 per cent of the ocean and still have sustainable economic development.”

Given that the fishing industry has worked with government and conservation organizations to set aside areas for protection, Fuller said SeaBlue Canada is recommending protected areas be off-limits to other industrial activities that threaten fish and fish habitat. That’s key to maintaining the trust not only of the fishing industry, but of Canadians as a whole.

“It’s (adding) insult to injury that oil and gas is allowed in where the fishing industry isn’t. It’s not a predictable regulatory regime,” she said. “We wouldn’t protect an area of forest from clear-cutting and then allow mining. So let’s do things in a comprehensive manner in the marine environment.”

Bill C-68, the overhaul of the Fisheries Act that’s currently before the Senate, may help in that regard. It restores habitat protection provisions, which could extend to any activity that destroys habitat.

Fuller said oil companies don’t even want to drill in protected areas, necessarily, but their boundaries don’t show up on oil and gas leasing maps.

“Making those boundaries clear would be a step in the right direction. Then companies could decide if they want to bid on areas with fisheries closures.”

The report found that some types of marine refuges are more likely to meet international standards than others. When it comes to protecting corals and sponges, Canada is doing well. What’s known as sensitive benthic-area closures were more likely to meet protection standards than multi-species and single-species closures. They’re meant to protect the seafloor and make up 84 per cent of marine refuges.

“There has been major, major progress on that, which is great,” Fuller said. “They’re protected from all bottom fishing. How do we make sure they’re protected from other habit-destructive activities?”

In addition to aligning with international standards and passing Bill C-68, the report says each marine refuge must be monitored and managed to ensure biodiversity is being conserved. It also says smaller areas that only protect a single species should be removed from consideration by protection targets, because they don’t contribute to the overall protection of biodiversity.

SeaBlue also wants a review of the Atlantic Offshore Accord Agreements so that oil and gas exploration and development is restricted from areas that are closed to protect fish and fish habitat.

In October, the National Advisory Panel on Marine Protected Area Standards issued its final report, which said no oil and gas development, seabed mining, or bottom-trawling fishing should be allowed within the boundaries of MPAs. The panel didn’t recommend extending that same protection to refuges. Fisheries and Oceans Minister Jonathan Wilkinson hasn’t responded to the report, but told iPolitics in December it was coming soon.

“I think there is a will to make some improvement,” Fuller said. “Canada always said, when there was international guidance, they would look at it.”

Jocelyn Lubczuk, Wilkinson’s press secretary, confirmed that. She noted Canada has played a leadership role in developing the CBD’s guidance by sharing DFO’s science-based criteria for what qualifies as a marine refuge, which helped shape what was adopted at the CBD conference in November 2018.

“As a party to the CBD, Canada has committed to further aligning our conservation efforts with those that have been internationally adopted,” she said.

Over the next few months, DFO’s marine refuge standards and criteria will be reviewed, while also considering recommendations made by the MPA advisory panel.

As for whether there needs to be some give from the oil and gas industry to help ensure federal protection efforts succeed, as Fuller suggested, Lubczuk said a key criterion of DFO’s operational guidance is that conservation objectives must be clear, and any permitted activity can’t conflict with those objectives. Each marine refuge will be evaluated regularly to ensure that continues over time.

“Oil and gas activities in marine refuges will continue to be subject to regional or project-specific assessments, as well as regulatory decisions from the offshore board responsible,” she said.

From a legacy perspective, Fuller said the best thing to do is act on SeaBlue’s recommendations.
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“Other countries have protected a great share of their ocean. Let’s make sure (that) what Canada does, it does it well. We can lead (by) doing it well.”

CTVNews.ca's Josh Dehaas, with files from CTV's Kevin Gallagher in Ottawa and Melanie Nagy in Vancouver 

Protesters delayed a speech by the prime minister in Ottawa and blocked traffic in Toronto and Vancouver on Tuesday, after RCMP moved in on an Indigenous blockade to enforce an injunction that would allow a pipeline to proceed in northern British Columbia.

The rallies came one day after RCMP arrested 14 people at the blockade site southwest of Houston, B.C., where members of the Gidimt'en clan of Wet'suwet'en First Nation are trying to stop construction of Coastal GasLink’s pipeline from going ahead.

RCMP were expected to dismantle another camp nearby on Tuesday. Police have blocked members of the public including the media from accessing that camp, saying that the “temporary exclusion zone” is required for “privacy and safety.”

They said in a written statement on Monday that police “facilitated a meeting between hereditary chiefs and (Coastal GasLink) in the hopes that this could be resolved without police involvement,” but “it was determined that the matter could not be resolved.”

The pipeline would bring natural gas from near Dawson Creek to a port on the coast in Kitimat, where it would then be liquefied before being exported. It’s part of a $40-billion project that was approved by the federal and provincial governments in October. Elected chiefs have given their support, but some hereditary chiefs have not.

Chief: ‘Where’s our Indigenous rights?’

One of those hereditary chiefs, John Ridsdale, told CTV News Channel on Tuesday that he is opposed to the project on his traditional territory because it his “responsibility to look after the land.”
“We need clean water, clean air, clean land,” he said.

“This is how we teach our children for the future to look after this,” he added.

Ridsdale said that the chiefs are “hurt” by actions of Coastal GasLink, and he accused the RCMP of being “puppets (of) industry and a government that won’t stand up for Indigenous rights.”

Ridsdale said that a 72-year-old woman was among those arrested. She was released but the 13 other people arrested were taken to Prince George, he said.

“We didn’t expect such an extreme action,” he added. “We did expect some to show up but the forces that they used, the amazing numbers that they used, the tactics that they used, were actually something we did not expect as peaceful people.”

The chief thanked the hundreds of people who showed up at rallies to ask Canada to demand that the RCMP cease enforcing the court order.

“Where’s our human rights? Where’s our Indigenous rights?” he said. “They always talk about reconciliation,” he went on. “If yesterday was any form of what reconciliation looks like in the governments’ eyes, I don’t want any part of it.”

Bellegarde: ‘Honour the rights and title’

Assembly of First Nations National Chief Perry Bellegarde also criticized the enforcement action, saying in a written statement that “reconciliation will not be achieved through force.”

“Real consensus will be built when the parties, with very different views, come together in a meaningful and productive dialogue,” his statement goes on.

“If this was really about the 'rule of law' then governments would be honouring the rights and title of First Nations in their traditional territories, which are recognized by Canada's own courts,” Bellegarde added.

One of Tuesday’s largest protests began on Parliament Hill and proceeded through downtown Ottawa. A meeting between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and a number of First Nations negotiators unrelated to the protest was delayed after demonstrators pushed their way into the building.

In Toronto, hundreds of protesters rallied in front of city hall before marching through the streets blocking traffic. Some held banners with skulls drawn on them and the words “no pipelines.”

In Vancouver, police were forced to shut down roads as hundreds marched through the city’s downtown chanting, drumming and carrying placards.

There were also rallies in support of the Indigenous blockaders in Edmonton, Montreal, Prince George, B.C., and North Bay, Ont.

One man at the North Bay protest told CTV Northern Ontario demonstrators want “peace and dialogue” and want politicians to demand that the RCMP “not move in and forcibly remove sovereign people from their own land.”

Protests in support of oil and gas

Meanwhile, a different kind of protest was held in Regina, where oil and gas industry workers who are facing the prospect of layoffs want to see more pipelines proceed.

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe attended the rally, which he said was about defending the “quality of life” that Canadians enjoy thanks to natural resources development.

“You are here today because you care about our resource sector, you care about our province and you care about our nation,” Moe told the cheering crowd.

The Regina rally was organized by Canada Action, a group that has now held dozens of rallies in support of pipelines. Canada Action argues that the Coastal GasLink pipeline will help to reduce carbon emissions by allowing developing Asian countries to transition power production from coal to cleaner natural gas.

In Calgary, members of Canada Action showed up to counter a protest in support of the blockade. They shouted “build that pipe, build that pipe” and demanded the Trudeau government scrap Bill C-69, which they say would make pipeline approvals more difficult.

Sean Alexander was one of them. “People in Calgary, people in the energy sector ... are tired of sitting back and listening to this small minority get a voice over ours,” he told CTV Calgary.

The ministers in charge of Indigenous affairs both turned down a request from CTV Power Play to offer their views on the RCMP’s enforcement.

Cullen: ‘Time for Trudeau to engage’

NDP MP Nathan Cullen, who represents the northern B.C. riding of Skeena—Bulkley Valley, told Power Play that he tried to visit protesters on Monday but was blocked by RCMP.

“We have a clash here between the traditional Indigenous government which has existed for thousands of years and the laws and the governance in Canada,” Cullen said. “Mr. Trudeau has promised to recognize those two things. That’s what reconciliation means, I think,” he added.

Cullen said that aboriginal “rights and title” must be recognized in this case and that the federal government needs to “get involved in a meaningful way.”

“The prime minister was skiing in B.C. last week in Whistler. He’s going to be here tomorrow, we believe, in Kamloops,” Cullen added. “It’s time for him to engage.”
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The 670-kilometre Coastal GasLink pipeline would supply natural gas for the LNG Canada project, which is a joint venture between Shell, PETRONAS, PetroChina, Mitsubishi Corporation and KOGAS.