Eleanor Fast
Executive Director

After a long campaign – where any result seemed possible – we now know that Nature Canada will be raising our voice for nature with a Liberal government for the next four years.

Before and during the election, Nature Canada worked hard to influence all parties to ensure that nature was a priority in their platforms.  I spoke with Gerald Butts and other senior Liberal strategists over the summer to highlight the importance of nature conservation to Canada’s future, and I was pleased to see that on some issues their platform shows they listened.

In their platform the Liberals promised to work quickly to honour Canada’s international commitment to protect 17% of Canada’s land and 10% of oceans by 2020.  And I was happy to see that National Wildlife Areas and Migratory Bird Sanctuaries were mentioned as key to achieving this.  For many years Nature Canada has been a strong voice on the importance of NWAs and MBSs – we are looking forward to holding the new government to it’s commitments and investing in these important protected areas – top of our list is creating an NWA in Govenlock, SK.

Image of a Barn Swallow

I am also pleased to see a commitment to further developing the National Parks system, and increased science spending for early identification of ecological stresses.  The platform also promised to better protect endangered species and to meet mandatory timelines for responding to the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC).  Your actions in signing Nature Canada’s petition on Swallows over the summer have helped a lot in convincing all parties of the importance on timely action – thank you!  Thanks to you, we were able to show all parties that endangered species are an important issue for Canadians.  There are 100 species waiting for action and Nature Canada will be there to keep pressing until action is taken to protect every single one!

There is a lot to do, and as your voice for nature in Ottawa we’re not wasting any time!  In the two days since the election I’ve had meetings with the President of Parks Canada and with the head of the Canadian Wildlife Service, as well as countless emails and phone calls to new and returning MPs and their staff.  And soon as the Environment Minister is named we will be raising our voice for nature with him or her.

A new government always represents a new opportunity to protect and conserve the wildlife and habitats we all love.  The Liberal party showed a willingness to listen on platform development, and Prime Minister-elect Trudeau has told all Canadians that his government will listen.  We look forward to being Your Voice for Nature in those conversations.  Thank you for your trust in Nature Canada.

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