{"id":806610,"date":"2026-07-16T22:56:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T22:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/806610\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T22:56:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T22:56:08","slug":"trading-oil-for-orcas-is-a-bargain-canada-cant-afford-ecojustice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/806610\/","title":{"rendered":"Trading oil for orcas is a bargain Canada can\u2019t afford – Ecojustice"},"content":{"rendered":"

This\u00a0article\u00a0was originally published as an op-ed in the Vancouver Sun on June 4,\u00a02026.\u00a0Read the original article here.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since this was written, a few important things have changed:\u00a0<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Mark Carney\u2019s federal government\u00a0extended the consultation period<\/a>\u00a0for its proposed environmental law changes. Now any new legislation will be delayed until the fall.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Alberta government\u00a0submitted\u00a0an application for a\u00a0new southern route oil pipeline<\/a>\u00a0to the Major Projects Office. The proposal includes a new pipeline, which will\u00a0largely following\u00a0the route of the existing Trans Mountain Pipeline, with a new marine terminal at Roberts Banks in Delta, B.C.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Picture an animal that symbolizes Canada\u2019s\u00a0West\u00a0Coast.\u00a0You are\u00a0likely picturing\u00a0a Southern Resident\u00a0Killer\u00a0Whale, whose\u00a0main home\u00a0is the Salish Sea between Vancouver and Vancouver Island.\u00a0During\u00a0Orca Action Month<\/a>, and\u00a0on World Oceans Day,<\/a>\u00a0the Carney government\u00a0is expected to table\u00a0legislation\u00a0seeking Trump-like powers\u00a0to sacrifice\u00a0any\u00a0species at risk for\u00a0any\u00a0projects\u00a0and these\u00a0iconic whales now have a target on their dorsal fins.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A population on the brink\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Southern Residents are among the best-studied animals in the world.\u00a0Each individual\u00a0is\u00a0identified\u00a0by unique\u00a0markings, named, and counted in an annual census.\u00a0They were\u00a0badly affected\u00a0by captures for aquariums in past decades. After recovery that peaked in the 1990s, the population began to fall due to not enough Chinook salmon, underwater noise that disrupts hunting and communication, and pollution in the Salish Sea. As of the latest\u00a0official\u00a0count, only 74\u00a0remain. Because they do not breed with other killer whales, this is\u00a0a very small\u00a0and at-risk population.\u00a0The federal government has confirmed twice that they face \u201cimminent threats\u201d to their survival.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the Southern Residents are far more than these grim statistics. They hold deep cultural and spiritual significance for local First Nations. They are intensely social\u00a0animals with a\u00a0distinct culture and language. They live in matriarchal family units grouped into three extended pods, each carrying its own unique dialect passed down from mothers and close kin to calves. Grandmothers play a vital role, passing down knowledge to younger generations, including foraging skills that directly improve survival. They share food with one another, reinforcing bonds across generations. Their culture also appears in lighter, almost whimsical\u00a0behaviours, such as\u00a0wearing salmon as hats<\/a>, as well as in profoundly sobering\u00a0acts of grief,<\/a>\u00a0including carrying dead calves for days through the water.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Why the law matters\u00a0<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Species at Risk Act\u00a0was passed in 2002\u00a0to protect species like the Southern Residents and to meet Canada\u2019s commitments to protect biodiversity.\u00a0\u00a0No government since\u00a0then has tried\u00a0to weaken it. The\u00a0main challenge has been making sure ministers use tools like emergency protection orders and meet deadlines for\u00a0identifying\u00a0critical habitat\u00a0and\u00a0other\u00a0steps to protect species, which are\u00a0chronically backlogged.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

In contrast to the discretionary or proactive provisions in the Act, the no-jeopardy requirement draws a red line against allowing harm.\u00a0To achieve the Act\u2019s purposes of preventing extinction and providing for recovery, it prevents a minister issuing a permit for a project or activity that will jeopardize a species\u2019 very survival or its ability to recover.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Prime Minister\u00a0Carney is proposing that his Cabinet be allowed to exempt projects from the no-jeopardy requirement.\u00a0Carving\u00a0out an exemption\u00a0to\u00a0allow extinction would\u00a0copy\u00a0a\u00a0feature of\u00a0the US\u00a0Endangered Species Act, where a committee nicknamed the \u201cGod squad\u201d can override\u00a0extinction\u00a0protections. Recently, under Trump, the\u00a0\u201cGod\u00a0squad\u201d authorized\u00a0risking the extinction of\u00a0rare whale and sea turtles for oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to government sources reported in the media<\/a>, the jeopardy exemption for the\u00a0Species at Risk Act\u00a0has been proposed with the Southern Residents in mind.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Salish Sea under pressure\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Southern Residents\u00a0already\u00a0have the misfortune of living in the heavily industrialized Salish Sea.\u00a0They face tanker traffic, the\u00a0Trans Mountain pipeline expansion<\/a>s, the\u00a0Roberts Bank Terminal 2\u00a0project<\/a>, and\u00a0possible future\u00a0oil\u00a0pipelines ending in the Salish Sea.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

All of\u00a0these projects stand to jeopardize the Southern Residents\u2019 survival. Carney\u2019s proposed exemption would allow the federal government and proponents to move forward with projects without doing the work to avoid\u00a0pushing endangered species\u00a0to\u00a0extinction.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Southern Residents\u00a0are\u00a0often seen as sentinels of the Salish Sea. Their decline is like a warning light on a dashboard, showing the ecosystem is in trouble. And once they are gone, that\u00a0extinction is forever.\u00a0Sacrificing\u00a0these\u00a0whales\u00a0would be a permanent loss in exchange for a short-lived economic benefit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Species at Risk Act\u00a0says wildlife has value\u00a0in and of itself\u00a0and is important to Canadians. If\u00a0the\u00a0Act\u00a0is weakened to allow risk to this\u00a0iconic West Coast\u00a0population, no species, from caribou to monarch butterflies, will be safe.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There is still time to choose a different path. Canadians can say that protecting nature is not optional, even when development pressure is high.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0not too late to demand a path forward that preserves our natural heritage.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This\u00a0article\u00a0was originally published as an op-ed in the Vancouver Sun on June 4,\u00a02026.\u00a0Read the original article here.\u00a0 Since…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":806611,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,44],"class_list":["post-806610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=806610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/806611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=806610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=806610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=806610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}