Liberals reject habitat banking amendment to fisheries bill

By Marco Vigliotti
iPOLITICS

The Trudeau Liberals are rejecting Senate amendments to their overhaul of the Fisheries Act that would change the definition of fish habitat and expand an offset credit program to outside groups.

Fisheries Minister Jonathan Wilkinson on Tuesday moved a motion in the House responding to changes to Bill C-68 made by the Upper Chamber.

As per the motion, the Liberals accepted most amendments to the bill, some of which they orchestrated themselves. Sen. Peter Harder, the government’s representative in the Upper Chamber, moved 28 amendments to Bill C-68 when it was before the Senate fisheries and oceans committee last month.

The changes included banning the practice of shark finning and the import and export of shark fins, excluding human-made agricultural waterways from being designated as a “fish habitat” and making it mandatory to have a permit for the import and export of the class of marine mammals — cetaceans — that includes whales and dolphins.

READ MORE: Shark finning, cetacean captivity amendments could be folded into C-68

Collectively, the Liberals only took issue with four amendments from the Upper Chamber, proposing relatively minor language tweaks to two of them and flatly rejecting the others.

Wilkinson said the government would not accept an amendment from Sen. Rose-May Poirier eliminating “water frequented by fish” from the definition of fish habitat in the act because it goes “against the objective of the bill.” The inclusion of the term in the originally worded definition, he said, “increases the scope for the application of the fish habitat protection provisions.”

The governing Liberals also rejected changes to the bill permitting third party habitat banking, a compensation tool designed to offset the impact on the environment and wildlife caused by human activity.

According to a 2012 study ordered by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), the most common application of the tool in Canada is the creation of in-kind habitats which require developers to “restore, create or enhance the productive capacity of fish habitat” through moves like stream restoration, controlling invasive species and replacing man-made physical barriers.

Wilkinson said the DFO has been encouraging use of habitat banking since 2013 and C-68 would “enshrine this policy approach into law,” while offering new incentives to use the banking credits to offset impacts on fish and fish habitat.

Expanding fish habitat banking to third parties would allow any organization to earn credits through restoration and conservation efforts which they could then sell to developers or other project proponents. Some senators also supported allowing project developers to pay an upfront fee pay instead of investing in offsetting projects, with the funds to be directed to habitat restoration.

Wilkinson, though, said the government believes habitat banking credits must benefit the specific fish populations and areas affected by the project they were designed to offset, adding that habitat protection and restoration should be prioritized especially so in cases where “aquatic species at risk are present.”

He also noted that the provinces are responsible for resource management for freshwater and inland areas, meaning there would need to first be robust consultations, including with affected Indigenous communities, before the development of any banking system.

“Due to the legal complexity and public policy considerations that the government would need to address prior to establishing and implementing such regimes in Canada, we will not be adopting the habitat banking amendments proposed by the (Senate),” Wilkinson said.

BACKGROUNDER: Fisheries Act overhaul casts off at Senate committee

The minister, though, committed to having the DFO evaluate the performance of proponent-led habitat banks and to assess offsetting policies adopted elsewhere. He also said he has asked the House fisheries committee to study the issue.

Conservative Sen. David Wells, who moved the habitat banking amendment, urged MPs Wednesday to ensure it was included in the bill, arguing complexities in implementing the system identified by the minister could be rectified by appropriate regulations that could be made after the legislation becomes law.

“I think we all recognize and appreciate the complexities involved in establishing an effective third party habitat banking regime in Canada. Those complexities though, colleagues, are not legislative – they are regulatory,” he told the House fisheries committee, where he appeared to testify as part of its study on third party habitat banking.

Wells said changes to the bill introducing third party habitat banking would only come into force upon proclamation by cabinet, not simply when C-68 receives Royal Assent. As a result, the DFO and relevant federal agencies could take the “time to get it right” in terms of creating the necessary regulatory framework, he argued. 

“This could take a year, it could take two years, or it could take five years – however long it takes to bring in a system that is based on international best practices, and generates the best possible ecologic and economic outcomes,” Wells added.

*This story has been updated with comment from Sen. David Wells. ​

SOURCE: https://ipolitics.ca/2019/06/12/liberals-reject-habitat-banking-amendment-to-fisheries-bill/