| Historical Information |
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| This post is about a previous Session of Parliament. Any legislation here that did not receive Royal Assent has been terminated. |
C-73 – the Nature Accountability Act – requires the Minister of the Environment to create a national strategy for protecting biodiversity.
Background
Easy background for this one. Canada’s signed on to the Convention on Biological Diversity and has committed to hitting certain global goals by 2050. (This is called Vision 2050.) As part of this, the Convention will need reports on progress and current strategies to be submitted every so often. This legislation lays out what these reports should look like so that we can meet our global commitments, and also improves visibility to the public.
The Strategy
First up the strategy and reports will be expected to include information on any actions we’ve already taken and actions we intend to take, including anything that would add biodiversity to the list of considerations for decisions we make on any other subjects. This will include actions taken by any level of government.
The strategy will need to take into account:
- The best scientific and technological knowledge relevant to conserving and restoring nature, including biodiversity.
- Indigenous knowledge relevant to the conservation and restoration of nature.
- The rights of Indigenous people, including the right to self-determination.
- The Precautionary Principle – If there is a threat of significant reduction or loss of biodiversity a lack of full scientific certainty should not be a reason to postpone cost-effective measures to avoid or minimize that threat. (Just because we aren’t 100% certain that something will harm to biodiversity doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take steps to minimize the potential damage)
- The Principle of Non-Regression – Measures need to be taken to ensure our progress is always forward and we never start losing it.
- The Principle of Intergenerational Equity – It’s important to meet the needs of the current generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
- The goal of advancing equality, including with the intersection of sex and gender with other identity factors
- Any submissions sent in by the provinces, Indigenous groups, and the advisory committee after consulting with them on the strategy.
The advisory committee will be created by the Minister to look into actions we can take as well as how we’re doing in meeting our goals. The Minister will have the power to appoint people to the committee, but will need to consider the need that the committee as a whole have:
- Expertise and knowledge of scientific disciplines relevant to conserving and restoring nature, including biodiversity.
- Indigenous knowledge relevant to conserving and restoring nature.
- Expertise and knowledge of biodiversity policy at the international, national, and subnational levels. This includes the likely effects of potential measures that address biodiversity loss.
A review of this legislation will be done by the end of 2030, and then another every 10 years after that.
Progress of C-73
C-73 was waiting for its Second Reading when Parliament was prorogued, ending Session 44-1. It could be brought back in 44-2, but will need either unanimous consent or a vote to do so. We’ll just have to see if the government thinks this is a high enough priority to bring back.
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