Study finds federal delays leave more than half of at-risk species waiting for protection

A new study found that more than half of the wildlife species assessed as at risk in Canada since 2017 are waiting past recommended federal deadlines for a listing decision that would unlock habitat protections.

Of 288 species assessed as at risk since 2017, just 17 reached the Governor in Council, the federal cabinet body that makes the final listing decision, within the recommended timeline, according to the research.

Another 153, more than half, were overdue and still waiting as of Jan. 25, 2025.

READ MORE: Study finds Fort McKay faces severe dust pollution overlooked by Alberta monitoring

READ MORE: Research on Chinese dyeing industry offers lessons for Canada's carbon pricing

"The government recommended one to two years, and they are consistently failing to meet that," said Peter Thompson, a postdoctoral researcher in biology at Simon Fraser University and lead author of the study.

The researchers say the bottleneck falls in a gap in the Species at Risk Act (SARA).

The law requires the environment minister to publish a response within 90 days of receiving an assessment from COSEWIC, the independent scientific body that assesses wildlife. Once the Governor in Council receives that assessment, it has nine months to make a decision.

But there is no explicit deadline for getting the assessment from the minister to the Governor in Council.

"It could just sit there forever because there's no timeline for the step," said Drew Yewchuk, a lawyer and doctoral researcher at the University of British Columbia's Peter A. Allard School of Law.

The study does not say why the delays happen, but critics say the gap allows governments to put off tough choices between conservation and economic interests.

Yewchuk, who did not work on the study, argued the gap allows governments to avoid publicly choosing between conservation and competing economic interests.

"It takes the pressure off of them to make hard calls about species conservation and allows them to just let the issue slide away," he said.

The delays include populations of caribou, beluga whales and lake sturgeon that have been assessed as endangered or threatened.

Under SARA, listing an endangered or threatened species can trigger prohibitions against killing, harming, harassing, capturing or taking it. The law also requires a recovery strategy, which must identify critical habitat where possible.

Yewchuk said habitat protection is one of SARA's most consequential tools.

"If the animals don't have habitat to live on, they don't live," he said.

Those protections are especially important for aquatic species because SARA's core prohibitions apply to them across Canada, while for most terrestrial species they are generally limited to federal lands.

Aquatic species stood out in the study. None of the 15 marine mammals or 49 marine fish assessed during the study period had been forwarded to the Governor in Council by the January 2025 cutoff. Ninety per cent of terrestrial mammals and 79 per cent of freshwater fish were still waiting.

The Saskatchewan-Nelson River population of lake sturgeon is one example. COSEWIC designated the population endangered in 2017 after declines of about 90 per cent since the 1960s.

The study says it missed a recommended federal deadline for moving the assessment forward on Jan. 18, 2020, and was still awaiting the next step in the process five years later.

Thompson said the stakes are high because dams and other hydro projects have fragmented waterways and blocked the fish from moving between areas they rely on.

"It's preventing these species from going where they need to go to survive," he said.

Pacific salmon and Indigenous consultation

The study identified 38 Pacific salmon populations delayed while the government continued collecting or analyzing information.

Information collection was the most common explanation for delays examined by the researchers, followed by analysis. In 20 per cent of cases where the government provided an entry, no specific reason was given.

Indigenous consultation was also cited in some cases.

"It certainly does take time. That is a reality, but that should be part of the planned process," said Andrea Reid, a citizen of the Nisga'a Nation and Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Fisheries Science at the University of British Columbia.

Reid cautioned against treating consultation itself as an obstacle. She said listing is not always straightforward for Indigenous communities because restrictions can raise concerns about continued access to culturally important species.

"We need species to be adequately protected, but we also need cultural connection to be protected as well," she said.

Reid said what is at stake goes beyond the loss of individual species.

"Because these fish are so deeply connected to who we are," she said. "It's not just food, it's all systems of tradition and culture and language."

Thompson said vague or absent explanations made it impossible for the researchers to determine why many individual species were delayed.

"It certainly seems like there is, at the very least, a lack of transparency in what is happening," he said.

Environment and Climate Change Canada acknowledged the gap at the centre of the study.

With files from The Canadian Press and CBC News