Environmental groups launch major campaign to save endangered orcas: they’re worth more than pipelines

New campaign calls on Members of Parliament to protect southern resident killer whales from new legislation or project decisions that would put their populations at risk of extinction

Ottawa | Traditional, unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg People – The last 75 southern resident killer whales are worth more than pipelines. Members of Parliament have the power to protect them. That’s the message that Canadians across several major cities will be seeing and hearing as environmentalists raise the alarm about new legislation which is set to be tabled this fall when Parliament returns. 

In May, Prime Minister Carney's government published a discussion paper that seeks to give Cabinet sweeping powers on industrial projects, effectively gutting environmental and public oversight. PM Carney’s vision threatens Canada’s environment, waters, and rarest and most vulnerable species. It also does nothing to ensure projects are built better or provide benefits for Canadians. His government intends to table legislation this fall. If his proposal becomes law, nature will suffer and species could be driven to extinction — all while project decision-making becomes less transparent, less evidence-based and more politicized.

Some of Canada’s leading environmental advocacy groups, including Environmental Defence, West Coast Environmental Law, Equiterre, Nature Canada and Stand.earth, have launched a joint campaign to raise awareness of the threats posed to iconic wildlife, nature and public health and safety. The campaign includes billboards, bus shelter ads, posters and radio ads calling on Members of Parliament to vote against the upcoming legislation. The website includes a section that will track how MPs vote. 

This proposal is similar to the controversial Building Canada Act (BCA), which was passed last year despite strong opposition from Indigenous nations, environmentalists, scientists and civil society. The BCA gives Cabinet power to designate projects as being in the “national interest” and allows those projects to skip review processes and skirt laws that keep communities, nature and wildlife safe. These proposed changes by the federal government would mean that projects would no longer need the “national interest” designation to get fast-tracked. Even without this new legislation, wildlife like the southern resident killer whale are at risk if projects like the West Coast Oil Pipeline and the Roberts Bank Terminal 2 expansion are designated under the BCA. 

Quotes:

Julia Levin, Associate Director National Climate, Environmental Defence 
“Prime Minister Carney is putting endangered orcas at risk in order to bulldoze through projects like pipelines, LNG terminals and major port expansions. Whether through legislation or designation, PM Carney is choosing extinction. Canadians care about protecting wildlife. Members of Parliament need to hear from their constituents that attacks on nature are not in the national interest.”

Marc-André Viau, Director of Government Relations, Équiterre 
“Destroying the critical habitats of at-risk species for infrastructure and fossil fuel projects is the approach the U.S. President is taking in the United States. It should not be Canada’s response to the trade war. Let's be better. Let's protect Canada's nature and at-risk species and their critical habitats.” 

Emily McMillan, Executive Director of Nature Canada 
“I can't believe extinction of the Southern Resident Killer Whales is part of the proposed nation-building plan. In a moment that calls for Canadians to come together around our shared values, how can nature be anywhere but front and centre? The 'Extinction Papers' is a panic response that undermines the enormous value nature provides for free. We need a smarter plan that puts nature up front to build a Canada for our grandkids that our grandparents would recognize. The survival and restoration of iconic species like the Southern Residents is how we'll know that we got it right.” 

Anna Johnston, Staff Lawyer, West Coast Environmental Law
“Environmental laws aren’t red tape. They are a safety net meant to protect Canadians and the environment Canadians rely on and care about. Southern resident killer whales are an iconic species and an essential part of the Salish Sea ecosystem. It is astonishing that the federal government would knowingly push them further towards extinction by weakening environmental safeguards and rubber-stamping massive industrial projects. Throwing nature under the bus isn’t nation-building, it’s shameful.”

Sven Biggs, Canadian Oil and Gas Campaign Director, Stand.Earth
“Southern Resident Killer Whales have been central to the ecology and cultural identity of British Columbia’s west coast going back to long before Canada even existed. Which is why they appear everywhere from traditional Indigenous carvings to our hockey jerseys. So when the Prime Minister threatens to build a pipeline that would bring some of the world's largest oil tankers to the critical habitat of this endangered species, he is not just putting the future of these magnificent creatures at risk, he is threatening something that is fundamental to who we are in this part of the world.”

Additional links:

Visit the campaign webpage: SaveTheOrcas.ca 
Read the backgrounder
View a sample of our billboard and bus shelter advertisements*
 

For more information or to request an interview, please contact:

Lauren Thomas, Environmental Defence, media@environmentaldefence.ca

Alexis Stoymenoff, West Coast Environmental Law, astoymenoff@wcel.org

Cari Barcas, Stand.earth, cari.barcas@stand.earth

Elisabeth Labelle, Équiterre (FR), elabelle@equiterre.org