After unconscionable delays, a Recovery Strategy and Action Plan for the Redside Dace is now in force
Toronto | Traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishinaabeg, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat – After delays totalling more than 15 years, Environment and Climate Change Canada and Fisheries and Oceans Canada have issued the finalized Recovery Strategy and Action Plan for the endangered Redside Dace, averting an impending courtroom battle over federal violation of the requirements of Canada’s Species at Risk Act.
Ecojustice lawyers, representing Environmental Defence, filed an Application for Judicial Review this June, after Fisheries and Oceans Canada missed the mandatory Species at Risk Act deadline of April 3, 2024 to finalize the Recovery Strategy and Action Plan for the Redside Dace. This most recent missed deadline came after nearly 15 years of delays to legally mandated timelines for officially “listing” the endangered status of the species and publishing a draft of the proposed recovery strategy. If federal officials had followed the law, a Recovery Strategy would have been in place since 2009.
The specific content of the Recovery Strategy contains encouraging news for the future of the Redside Dace. It requires the government to make an order under the Species at Risk Act prohibiting destruction of the species’ critical habitat. This habitat, essential for the survival and recovery of the fish, is concentrated in parts of the Greater Toronto Area and faces the threat of being bulldozed for major highway and sprawl proposals. The Recovery Strategy includes all the information required for the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Canada to issue the order in the coming weeks to prohibit this destruction. Despite the months-long delay in finalizing the strategy, the Minister is legally obligated to issue the protection order no later than January 25th, 2025.
Phil Pothen, Counsel and Ontario Environment program manager for Environmental Defence, said:
“For years, federal officials have treated deadlines in Canada’s Species at Risk Act as mere suggestions – giving bad actors more chances to wipe out Canada’s endangered species. We’re pleased our Application has reminded them that complying with those deadlines and promptly protecting Species at Risk habitat is a binding legal obligation.”
Reid Gomme, Ecojustice staff lawyer, said:
“After a decade and a half of delay, the endangered Redside Dace will finally get the federal protection it is legally owed. If it weren’t for the most recent, unexplained delay in finalizing the proposed recovery strategy, a protection order would have been in place by the end of September 2024. With Canada in the midst of a biodiversity crisis fuelled by species extinction, there is no reason why this species should not be granted its long overdue protection order as soon as possible.”
ABOUT ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENCE (environmentaldefence.ca): Environmental Defence is a leading Canadian environmental advocacy organization that works with government, industry, and individuals to defend clean water, a safe climate, and healthy communities.
ABOUT ECOJUSTICE (ecojustice.ca): Ecojustice uses the power of the law to defend nature, combat climate change, and fight for a healthy environment. Its strategic, public interest lawsuits and advocacy lead to precedent-setting court decisions and law and policy that deliver lasting solutions to Canada’s most urgent environmental problems. As Canada’s largest environmental law charity, Ecojustice operates offices in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa, and Halifax.
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For more information or to request an interview, please contact:
Carolyn Townend, Environmental Defence, media@environmentaldefence.ca
Shayoni Mehta, communications strategist, Ecojustice, smehta@ecojustice.ca
