Unceded Algonquin Territory – Ottawa, ON (March 10, 2023) – Nature Canada’s Nature on the Hill event wrapped up yesterday following  roundtable discussions with The Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change, and the Honourable Joyce Murray, Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Coast Guard. Nature on the Hill was attended by over 500 supporters and nature lovers from across the country. Throughout the week, 64 nature groups participated in 40 meetings with MPs. The message to government decision-makers was overwhelmingly clear: “Canada needs to act now to halt and reverse nature loss.” 

“Nature groups mobilizing together like this to demonstrate the urgency of action on conservation has a big impact,” says Hannah Dean, Organizing Director at Nature Canada. “There can be no question now what the priorities of the nature community are: we need an action plan to save species, restore degraded ecosystems and protect 30 percent of lands and waters by 2030.”

Canada helped to secure a new Global Biodiversity Framework  at “NatureCOP,” the U.N. biodiversity conference held in Montreal this past December. The Framework’s overriding mission is to halt and reverse global biodiversity loss by 2030. As a signatory, Canada must now implement the Framework  through a national action plan. This action plan was the big topic at the MP meetings as well as the roundtable discussions with the Prime Minister’s Office, Ministers Guilbeault and Murray, and Ron Hallman, CEO of Parks Canada. 

Nature Canada is likewise tremendously grateful to the volunteers, nature groups, MPs and Ministers who participated in this year’s event. 

-30- 

For more information contact: 

Scott Mullenix 

media@naturecanada.ca