{"id":882005,"date":"2026-09-03T16:56:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T16:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/882005\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T16:56:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T16:56:10","slug":"environmental-groups-warn-ottawas-major-projects-push-puts-whales-at-risk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/882005\/","title":{"rendered":"Environmental groups warn Ottawa\u2019s major projects push puts whales at risk"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Environmental groups say whales are at risk if Ottawa moves ahead with a bill changing how major projects are reviewed.JONATHAN HAYWARD\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Some of Canada\u2019s leading environmental groups are pushing the federal government to change aspects of proposed legislation to speed up development of major projects before it\u2019s tabled this fall.<\/p>\n

Environmental Defence has launched an ad campaign to draw attention to the potential fate of the Southern Resident Orcas. The group says the whales are at risk if Ottawa moves ahead with a bill changing how major projects are reviewed.<\/p>\n

The group says it\u2019s concerned about Ottawa\u2019s plan to establish \u201ceconomic zones\u201d for transportation corridors, telecommunications networks, and energy production and transmission. Those zones would allow the federal cabinet to decide which activities would be allowed in them, and give ministers the power to pre-approve projects.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve heard from MPs that changes are being considered from what was drafted initially,\u201d Julia Levin, an associate director at Environmental Defence, told The Canadian Press.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the government has not said anything publicly around the direction and what that might look like, and specifically on the changes to species protections.\u201d<\/p>\n

Inside the agency advancing Carney\u2019s major projects agenda<\/a><\/p>\n

Ottawa released two discussion papers in May which also proposed, among other things, taking the responsibility for reviewing pipelines, transmission lines and offshore renewable energy projects away from the Impact Assessment Agency and handing it to the Canada Energy Regulator.<\/p>\n

The federal government has said it has been told by industry that the level of expertise on energy projects that lived at the Canada Energy Regulator couldn\u2019t be found at the Impact Assessment Agency.<\/p>\n

Ottawa initially set a deadline of June 7 for feedback but extended it to July 22 following heavy criticism, primarily from environmental and Indigenous groups. They also pushed the timeline to table legislation to the fall sitting, which begins on Sept. 21.<\/p>\n

The government said last month it received more than 21,000 emails on the proposed changes. It said a summary report on the consultations would be finalized by the end of the summer.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the Prime Minister\u2019s Office said Wednesday there was no update available on the status of the report.<\/p>\n

Ottawa is also proposing to exempt certain projects from laws designed to protect species at risk.<\/p>\n

Ottawa moves to list West Coast pipeline as project of \u2018national interest\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

The Marine Mammal Commission \u2013 an independent U.S. government agency established by Congress \u2013 estimated there were only 74 Southern Resident Orca whales left as of July 2025. The animal is protected in Canada under the Species At Risk Act.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir habitat is the Salish Sea \u2013 the exact waters oil and LNG tankers must pass through,\u201d reads an excerpt from a new website Environmental Defence launched Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnderwater noise from these ships drowns out the orcas\u2019 ability to hunt, communicate, and navigate \u2013 pushing them toward extinction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Separately, Ecojustice \u2013 which has dubbed the pending legislation the \u2019orca extinction bill\u2019 \u2013 began its own media campaign Wednesday after Ottawa began the process to designate the Roberts Bank Terminal 2 as a project of national interest last week.<\/p>\n

The government says the terminal would increase the Port of Vancouver\u2019s container capacity by nearly 50 per cent, and help to double Canada\u2019s exports to non-U.S. markets by 2035.<\/p>\n

Ottawa asks court to quash lawsuit over projected missed emission targets<\/a><\/p>\n

Designation as a project of national interest under the Building Canada Act allows the government to skirt the Species At Risk Act to permit the project to proceed.<\/p>\n

Ottawa is also proposing to give cabinet ministers what it calls \u201climited\u201d power to exempt projects from what\u2019s known as the \u201cjeopardy test\u201d for species at risk.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut only if it\u2019s in the public interest and if the proponent has made all reasonable efforts to avoid or reduce impacts on at-risk species,\u201d says a federal discussion paper on the proposal.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn plain terms: the law is meant to stop projects from pushing endangered species closer to extinction,\u201d Ecojustice said in a post on its website Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe proposed changes could create a way for projects to get around that protection.\u201d<\/p>\n

In June, when environmental groups were on Parliament Hill lobbying against the proposals, Prime Minister Mark Carney<\/a> said the government was \u201cabsolutely not\u201d tossing away environmental protections in its proposals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Environmental groups say whales are at risk if Ottawa moves ahead with a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":882006,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,66,865,61,900,892,886,323,883,913],"class_list":["post-882005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-science","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-wildlife","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882005","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=882005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/882006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=882005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=882005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=882005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}