The federal government is decades behind on meaningful action to protect endangered species in Canada, a new audit reveals.
The independent audit found that the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada would need 30 years to complete the assessments currently outstanding as top priority, if it continues at the pace set by Environment and Climate Change Canada. The ministry only allows 60 species assessments per year.
“Furthermore, due to factors both within and outside of the department’s control, we found that the department did not provide the support necessary to complete the targeted number of 60 assessments and reassessments,” reads the report.
Assessments identify the risks posed to different species. For example, the Vancouver Island marmot is considered endangered, and so are the dwindling southern resident orcas. Re-assessments are also needed every decade to see how recovery efforts are, or aren’t, working.
However, the audit found the environment ministry isn’t even tracking its own numbers.
“We found that Environment and Climate Change Canada did not undertake a formal analysis to justify its targets in the 3 years under audit, the decline each year, or the repercussions of its decisions given the act’s purpose to prevent species from disappearing. The department did not have any documentation to support or explain how it set the annual targets including why it reduced them each year of our audit period,” says the report.
The audit recommends the ministry provide the committee more support, and make sure the most at-risk species get top priority.
It also suggested a target of 106 assessments each year would eliminate the backlog by 2030, in time to meet Canada’s commitments made at the Convention on Biological Diversity.
The ministry agreed with the findings, and committed to implementing changes by March 31, 2027.
