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MPs vote this week on species at risk act

Will the Chrétien government let aboriginal people have a say?

JANE GEORGE

Canada’s aboriginal peoples may find out this week if Canada’ new species at risk law will provide a say for aboriginal peoples in the protection of endangered animal and plant species.

Two weeks ago Rick Laliberté, a Liberal MP representing the Churchill River riding in Saskatchewan, stood up in the House of Commons, where he condemned the Liberal government’s Species at Risk Act in its current form.

Speaking in Cree, Laliberté said the proposed act, Bill C-5, diminishes the role and contribution of aboriginal peoples in protecting species at risk and, on behalf of the united aboriginal leadership of Canada, he called for several amendments.

Finally, on Tuesday afternoon in a parliamentary debate on the bill, the gutsy Liberal backbencher and the aboriginal cause got some support as opposition parties took turns slamming the government’s Species at Risk Act as a flawed piece of legislation.

Canadian Alliance MPs scolded non-native Liberal backbenchers for not making themselves heard on the issue.

"If the government and cabinet were to bring forth poor legislation and provide poor leadership to Canadians, the government backbenchers have a responsibility to have the guts to step forward and say they do not agree with it and that the legislation needs to be stopped," said David Anderson, the Alliance MP for Cypress Hills-Grasslands.

The Canadian Alliance’s aboriginal affairs critic, Brian Pallister, of Portage-Lisgar in southern Manitoba, said while the Alliance is "totally committed to protecting and preserving Canada’s natural environment and our endangered species," his party didn’t think the law would work.

"The impact it would have on aboriginal people could be profound and I think it is important that the national aboriginal council motion, that the committee be restored, be brought forward," Pallister said.

Last November, the House of Commons environment committee unanimously agreed to create a National Aboriginal Council on Species at Risk as part of the new law.

This council would have directly advised the Canadian Endangered Species Conservation Council on wildlife issues that could affect the livelihood, food supply and culture of Inuit and other aboriginal peoples.

The council would have been made up of three federal cabinet ministers and six aboriginal leaders, at least one of whom would have represented the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami.

But the government stripped the section on the aboriginal council from the act.

That means Ottawa could use the Species at Risk Act to ban or reduce hunting of endangered Arctic species with no legal requirement to consult aboriginal organizations.

The Canadian Alliance’s other main criticism of C-5 is that it lacks any provisions for compensation of landowners or users who take a loss to protect a species at risk — something Nunavik leaders want if hunters are obliged to severely reduce the region’s beluga bunt.

"The compensation that should be in this bill, that should be itemized and clarified, which would protect those people who make use of that land, is not there," Pallister said.

The Conservative Party panned the bill for several shortcomings, including the "gutting of the provision" calling for the creation of the aboriginal council.

The Bloc Québécois also opposes the bill in its present form, but mostly for jurisdictional reasons

"Of course, the Bloc Québécois fully agrees with the principle whereby our species must be given even greater protection, but we are opposed to his bill, because it constitutes direct intrusion into many of Quebec’s jurisdictions and it directly overlaps the legislation enacted by Quebec in 1989," said Ghislain Fournier, MP for Manicougan.

Jose Kusugak, president of the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, has asked Prime Minister Jean Chrétien to intervene.

In an April 8 letter, Kusugak told Chrétien that downgrading the aboriginal council effectively "inhibits the voice of Inuit in the conservation of wildlife in this country."

Kusugak also said he is troubled that two letters he wrote to environment minister David Anderson, suggesting an "honorable compromise," had gone unanswered.

As of press time, Kusugak hadn’t received a reply from Chrétien.

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