Species at Risk

Issue Summary | Industry Response | Issue Management |  Resource Library

Issue Summary

The Species at Risk Act (SARA) was enacted on December 13, 2002, after a long legislative process. Since SARA’s enactment, CEA has engaged in formal and informal dialogue with Environment Canada, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and Parks Canada, through the Species at Risk Advisory Council (SARAC), SARA workshops, and specific SARA implementation measures. Members of the Canadian Electricity Association (CEA) have participated on national recovery teams, engaged in voluntary conservation measures, and worked with government to monitor population levels of species at risk. Through these activities, CEA and its members have developed a significant body of knowledge regarding how SARA operates and how it could be improved.  The industry supports the objective of SARA, but wants to ensure that associated legislative, regulatory, and policy development reduces regulatory uncertainty, and ultimately minimizes risk to vulnerable species.

INDUSTRY RESPONSE

Spring 2009 marked the beginning of the Five Year Review of SARA. CEA has been actively engaged in this process and appeared before the House of Commons Standing Committee on the Environment and Sustainable Development in June to discuss critical SARA issues faced by the electricity industry. The existing Act has crosscutting implications for electricity generation, transmission, and distribution functions and the industry wants to ensure that the Act is designed to better protect species, while also ensuring Canadians continue to have access to reliable electricity from coast-to-coast.

Since SARA’s enactment, the electricity industry has worked closely with national and regional stakeholders to monitor, recover, and conserve species identified as endangered, extirpated, or threatened.  In 2009, for example, the protection of biodiversity was enshrined in the CEA’s Sustainable Electricity program (www.SustainableElectricity.ca). Overall, the electricity industry supports SARA’s basic framework of cooperation and voluntary stewardship.  However, the government’s emphasis to date has been on the automatic prohibitions and enforcement provisions, despite the general lack of clarity in the Act.

The Five Year Review provides an opportunity to refine the Act to ensure that the electricity industry, among others, can efficiently implement the Act.  To date, the application of the Act has been somewhat problematic because of the Act’s use of automatic prohibitions.  Automatic prohibitions occur after the listing of a species under sections 32 and 33. The Act often presents the electricity industry with an impossible choice - as soon as a species is listed, a facility with any incidental impact on this species must either shut down and disrupt the supply of essential electricity, or be in immediate non-compliance with SARA. To be in compliance, the facility must seek and secure a permit or a conservation agreement.

Many electricity facilities were constructed several decades ago and, best efforts notwithstanding, may have unavoidable incidental effects on species at risk. We have suggested that that an amendment be made to the Act to exempt existing facilities from automatic prohibitions, provided they have either applied for a SARA permit, are engaged in recovery planning, or are engaged in the development of a conservation agreement.

The Act provides for the issuance of an agreement or permit under s. 73 to authorize activities affecting listed species in any part of its critical habitat or residence. Currently, however, no permits or agreements have been issued to industry, nor have any authorizations for industrial activities been issued under s. 74 or 78. We recommended that the arbitrary terms imposed on permits (3 years) and agreements (5 years) in s. 73(9) be replaced with biologically relevant permit terms and that a provision be made to allow for permit renewals that include consistent checks and balances.

The use of conservation agreements was also suggested as a possible mechanism to protect species while achieving recovery goals. An amendment to s. 11 to allow conservation agreements to meet SARA compliance requirements, alongside exempting companies under s.83 from automatic prohibitions where a conservation agreement exists, would achieve this outcome. The use of conservation agreements as a compliance tool would result in increased cooperation among industry, government, and stakeholders.

The Five Year Review also provides an important opportunity to address issues related to “residence” and “critical habitat”. Industry needs definitional clarity of both ‘residence’ and ‘critical habitat’.  As currently written, the residence concept is not considered to apply to all species, and critical habitat is not well differentiated from habitat.
Overall, amendments to SARA are important. The electricity industry supports the protection of species at risk and their critical habitat but needs greater operational certainty.

ISSUE MANAGEMENT

Key Contacts
Channa Perera
Director, Sustainable Development
Tel:  613-230-9527
Email:  perera@electricity.ca

Michelle Turner
Policy Analyst, Sustainability and Transmission
Tel:  613.286.7785
Email:  turner@electricity.ca

RESOURCE LIBRARY

• Canadian Electricity Association, Five Year Review of the Species at Risk Act, Position Paper, 2009
• SARA Five-Year Review, CEA Executive Summary of Key Concerns, 2009