Throwing money at a problem doesn’t make it go away and that’s part of the reason six environmental groups have filed for court action against the Trudeau Government.
The resident killer whales that feed off salmon are starving and while the feds have announced plans to support the recovery of the iconic, endangered resident killer whales, Executive Director of the Georgia Strait Alliance Christianne Wilhelmson said action needs to be taken now, not when the bureaucratic process is complete.
The Georgia Strait Alliance is included in the group of six taking the federal government to court and Wilhelmson said it’s in the hopes of forcing cabinet to issue an emergency order, expediting change.
“That’s why we’ve gone to court, to ask the court to force the ministers to request an emergency order from cabinet,” said Wilhelmson. “That’s the tool that allows you to take action without having to go through bureaucratic processes that can take months, if not years.”
The emergency order falls under the Species at Risk Act.
The Trudeau Liberals have announced $1.6 million dollars in funding to potentially reduce the noise resident killer whales have to deal with.
Wilhelmson said the announcement is positive, but the timeframe isn’t.
“What they announced was investments in hydrophones, and observation, this is good, we need to know where they are, we need to understand their movements, however, this will make no difference to the orcas in the short-term,” said Wilhelmson. “We’re dealing with an urgent situation where these animals are starving, we’re literally losing them as we speak and we need actions that will give them more access to food and make the waters quieter right now.”
Hydrophones collect individual vessel and mammal noise profiles and along with the support of the National Research Council of Canada and Transport Canada, the feds will spend four years predicting propeller noise and hull vibrations.
No date has been set for the six groups and the Trudeau Liberals to meet in federal court.
The other environmental groups are Ecojustice, the David Suzuki Foundation, the Natural Resources Defence Council, Raincoast Conservation Foundation, and World Wildlife Fund Canada.
