FOPO Committee Report

HEALTHY OCEANS, VIBRANT COASTAL COMMUNITIES: STRENGTHENING THE OCEANS ACT MARINE PROTECTED AREAS’ ESTABLISHMENT PROCESS

Supplementary Report from the Conservative Party of Canada

In 2010, the Conservative government committed Canada to the Aichi Targets as part of Canada's participation in the Convention on Biological Diversity. An important component of the Aichi Targets is the Target 11 commitment to conserve 10% of Canada's coastal and marine areas by 2020 - a commitment supported by all three of the major federal parties.

Despite the broad support of federal parties for achieving ocean protection, the federal Liberal government politicized the process of creating marine protected areas (MPAs) when they issued an election promise in 2015 to achieve 5% protection by 2017. Although one-upmanship is not new to any level of politics, this particular campaign promise has proven particularly worrisome for a long list of Canadians including fish and seafood harvesters, First Nations and coastal communities.

The Conservative Party of Canada knows that MPAs are essential to the conservation and health of Canada’s oceans; this is why our government signed the Aichi Biodiversity Targets in 2010. However, the Liberal government’s sudden acceleration of established processes for creating MPAs between 2016 and 2018 has exposed problematic patterns that threaten the sustainability of the MPAs being created with the new accelerated process.

Throughout its study examining the criteria and process being used to identify and establish MPAs, the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans received testimony clearly delineating the success of MPAs created with broad consensus of affected parties and the unintended consequences and discord created by MPAs created without such consensus.

The government’s pursuit of a political promise has resulted in the established process of creating MPAs being weakened and the resulting MPAs being less sustainable as they are more likely to face sustained opposition and legal challenges. Truly sustainable MPAs must be based on consensus and support from stakeholders including local communities, First Nations, harvesters and others who depend on Canada’s shared marine resources for subsistence, employment, industry and recreation.

This truth is being borne-out in the experiences of other countries that have rushed to meet targets only to have their supposed accomplishments eventually undermined by science that was not considered or voices that were ignored. Canada must learn from the painful experiences of other nations where MPAs were created without adequate consultation and consensus only to be contested in litigation that exposed the weaknesses of rushed MPAs.  

Canada has the largest most geographically diverse coast lines in the world. Applying a one size fits all comparison to what other countries are doing or experiencing with respect to MPA’s would prove problematic and ill advised. A rush to expediently designate interim MPA’s to capitalize politically on the international stage does not take into consideration those isolated communities along our coasts, solely dependent upon our waters. The government needs to take a thoughtful and well communicated approach to the establishment of MPAs.

As one team of researchers examining unintended consequences of marine conservation have written, “...the quality of governance processes and the social consequences of some marine conservation initiatives have been the subject of critique and even human rights complaints. These types of governance and social issues may jeopardize the legitimacy of, support for and long-term effectiveness of marine conservation.”[1]

By accelerating the process for creating MPAs, the Liberal government has replaced established processes for building consensus with expediency serving a partisan interest. Truly sustainable MPAs require a delicate balance upholding principles of conservation, Indigenous rights, common resource and the interests of all Canadians, both today and in the future.

As the Government of Canada’s Federal Marine Protected Areas Strategy states, “[t]he concept of consultation and collaboration is essential to the development and implementation of the federal marine protected areas network and its individual components – its success depends on how well various interests are able to work together.”[2] By adopting a new rushed approach to creating MPAs, the Liberal government is overstepping underpinning principles of the Government of Canada’s own federal MPA strategy.

By rushing the creation of MPAs, the Trudeau government is exposing Canadians and the Government of Canada to unknown potential social, economic and legal costs. For his part, the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans has indeed acknowledged that the new rushed process for creating MPAs will bear consequences, especially for fishermen who depend on access to marine resources in the form of fish stocks for their livelihoods.

During his appearance before the Senate of Canada on November 1, 2016, Minister LeBlanc conceded that the Trudeau government’s “...ambitious promise to substantially increase the size of our marine protected areas...will be more difficult in some areas than others, particularly when it comes to the commercial fishery.”[3] Minister LeBlanc continued by telling the Senate that during his discussions “...with fishery stakeholders and government representatives, who shared exactly the same concerns as you, I promised to work with them to properly compensate those affected.”[4]

Despite this statement by Minister LeBlanc, Conservative members of the Committee are unaware of what formal system has been created to deliver the compensation alluded to by the Minister. Such a system of compensation must be clearly defined and communicated to all Canadians and other levels of government affected by the rushed creation of MPAs.

When the Liberals made their 5% by 2017 election promise, they were grasping for political credit for a commitment made by another government and as they grasped, they overturned the established processes for building consensus with Canadians to determine what, where and how MPAs should be. As the old adage goes, it is not what you do; it is how you do it that matters.

There is broad political will for Canada to achieve its coastal and marine conservation commitments and the balanced approach required in achieving these goals; so why is the Liberal government discarding the essential scientific, social and economic assessment processes? In the new rushed process of creating MPAs, the Trudeau government has elevated the prominence of input received from environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs). This development is a cause for concern for Conservative Members of the Committee because the increased influence of ENGOs on the Trudeau government’s fisheries and oceans policies has eroded that of frontline stakeholders, especially fishermen.

One such prominent ENGO, the West Coast Environmental Law Association, shared with the Committee that their organization receives foreign funding channeled through other organizations such as the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and Tides Canada.[5] This revelation is of acute concern as it raises the question of who the Liberal government is actually listening to as it forms policies, laws and regulations that have a direct impact on Canadians from coast to coast to coast.

Supplementary Recommendation:

When establishing new Marine Protected Areas and Areas of Interest or undertaking measures contributing to the achievement of marine protection targets, the Government of Canada must uphold Canada’s national interest by giving primary consideration to Canadian interests over foreign or foreign-funded interests.   

The government's rush to the Aichi Target 11 finish line is creating uncertainty in our fisheries and tourism sectors, it is pitting regions and Canadians against each other and it is inflicting a black eye on a noble cause that all federal parties support.

Without delay, the Government of Canada must restore Canada’s time-proven processes of scientific, social and economic assessments and effective consultations for all Canadians affected by the creation of new MPAs. If the Government of Canada is sincerely committed to providing compensation for Canadians negatively affected by the creation of MPAs, a system for the delivery of such compensation must also be clearly defined, initiated and communicated to all affected Canadians without delay.

If something is worth doing, it is worth doing right. Now is the time for the Liberal government to put aside their political pride and do what is right for Canadians, our oceans and MPAs.