Canada now one of the first countries to introduce a nature accountability bill, says Guilbeault

Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault says Canada could lead most of the world if Parliament passes new legislation meant to boost biodiversity.

“We’re only the second country in the world to put in place the [Nature Accountability Bill] after Chile,” Guilbeault told CBC News. “Being only the second country in the world to do something certainly puts us ahead of the game.”

On Thursday, Guilbeault tabled Bill C-73 alongside Canada’s 2030 Nature Strategy. The bill follows the passage of the Canadian Net-Zero Emissions Accountability Act in 2021.

Both the bill and the strategy come as the world grapples with climate change and a biodiversity crisis. Canada’s most recent wildland species report found that one in five species in Canada face some level of extinction risk.

The strategy notes that the responsibility to protect nature extends well beyond our borders because damage to Canada’s ecosystem affects the world.

Canada, it says, is home to 20 per cent of the world’s total freshwater, 25 per cent of its wetlands and nearly 25 per cent of its boreal forests. With the world’s longest coastline, it is also home to one of the world’s largest marine territories.

The bill compels the environment minister to establish and table in Parliament a national biodiversity strategy, to report on actions taken to achieve those targets and to establish an advisory committee. The next strategy and review is expected in 2030.

The strategy required under the new law will be an update to the 2030 strategy the government tabled Thursday. That current strategy includes 23 targets covering ecosystem restoration and conserving and protecting 30 per cent of Canada’s land and marine areas.

Canada has conserved or protected nearly 14 per cent — or 1,368,065 square kilometres — of land, an area larger than the country of Peru, says the strategy document tabled Thursday. It also says Canada has conserved or protected nearly 15 per cent of marine areas, or 842,828 square kilometres, an area almost the size of Pakistan.

“While this progress is significant, Canada must more than double its entire cumulative area of conservation to date in just six years,” the strategy says.

Following the release of the strategy and the bill, the environmental group Nature Canada called for amendments and larger funding commitments.

Julia Laforge, Nature Canada’s policy and campaign manager for protected areas, said Guilbeault’s bill does not enshrine Canada’s targets into legislation. Laforge also said many of the measures listed in the strategy have no funding associated with them.

“So there’s nothing to ensure that those actions will actually ever come to fruition unless there’s funding guaranteed,” Laforge said.

Responding to the criticism, Guilbeaut said his government committed $600 million in new parks and conservation money in the April budget, on top of the $1.5 billion that was announced during the recent United Nations biodiversity summit in Montreal — COP15.

“So it’s very difficult for me as environment minister to go and see the finance minister and say, ‘Hey, finance minister, can you give me more money for nature protection when I haven’t even finished spending the other parts of money that that she’s given me,'” Guilbeault told CBC.

“So what we’re doing is trying to spend that money as fast as possible, sign agreements with … Indigenous nations, with environmental organizations.”