Category: Fisheries Regulation Page 1 of 3

By: Nigel Bankes

Case Commented On: Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated v Canada (Fisheries and Oceans), 2024 FC 649 (CanLII)

PDF Version: Two Decades of Nunavut Fisheries Litigation and the Meaning of “Special Consideration”

Ever since the ratification of the Nunavut Agreement (Agreement) in 1993, Inuit of Nunavut and especially Inuit of the Qikiqtani region of Nunavut have been attempting to use the Agreement, as well as other levers, to obtain an increased share of fisheries quota, principally for Greenland halibut (turbot) and Northern shrimp, for the waters offshore of Baffin Island. One can think of this as a process of recapturing or repatriating a resource to Nunavut and Nunavummiut that was largely appropriated by fishery interests based in the Atlantic provinces. I first wrote about this process twenty years ago: “Implementing the Fisheries Provisions of the Nunavut Claim: Re-capturing the Resource?” (2003) 12 J Environmental L & Policy 141-204. This most recent decision finally puts some teeth into the “special consideration” language of s 15.3.7 of the Agreement.

Disappointment at the Bank: The Fish Habitat Banking Provisions of Bill C-68

By Dave Poulton

On April 17, 2018

In Environmental, Fisheries Regulation, Protection of Species

By: Dave Poulton

PDF Version: Disappointment at the Bank: The Fish Habitat Banking Provisions of Bill C-68

Legislation Commented On: Bill C-68: An Act to amend the Fisheries Act and other Acts in consequence

Over the past weeks several ABlawg contributors have posted their summaries and commentary on the suite of environmental assessment and protection legislation introduced by the federal government in the form of Bills C-68 and C-69. The series started with Martin Olszynski’s overview of the two pieces of legislation, to which readers are referred for background to my contribution.

The purpose of this post is to examine fish habitat banking, a fisheries management tool that for the first time stands to be legislated through the amendments to the Fisheries Act, RSC 1985, c F-14 found in Bill C-68. Habitat banking is a mechanism to enable the provision of habitat “offsetting”. To understand habitat banking, therefore, it is necessary to start with the concept of offsetting.

Asking the Right Questions about Amendments to the Fisheries Act

By Martin Olszynski

On April 16, 2018

In Environmental, Fisheries Regulation, Protection of Species

By: Martin Olszynski, Brett Favaro and Nicolas Lapointe

PDF Version: Asking the Right Questions about Amendments to the Fisheries Act

Legislation Commented On: Bill C-68, An Act to Amend the Fisheries Act

On February 5, 2018, the federal government tabled Bill C-68, An Act to Amend the Fisheries Act. This Bill is the product of roughly two years of study and public consultation by both the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans (FOPO) and Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) – study and consultation that was promised by the then-opposition Liberals during the last federal election campaign. That promise was itself a response to the previous Conservative government’s changes to the Fisheries Act, RSC 1985, c F-14, as part of its overhaul of the federal environmental regime back in 2012. With respect to the Fisheries Act specifically, the previous government took direct aim at the habitat protection provisions of that legislation (section 35). While some of the changes were positive, such as broadening protection to include not just “works and undertakings” but also “activities”, most of them were widely panned (see e.g. here, here, here, here, here, and here). Whereas the original prohibition protected all fish and fish habitat, post-2012 only those fish (and their habitat) that were part of, or supported, a commercial, recreational or Aboriginal fishery are protected. The level of protection has also been reduced: whereas the previous version of section 35 protected against “harmful alterations, disruption, or destruction” of fish habitat, the 2012 version only protects against the “permanent alteration or destruction” of fish habitat.

A Missed Opportunity to Strengthen Compliance and Enforcement under the Federal Fisheries, Environmental Assessment and Canadian Energy Regulator Acts

By Alastair Lucas, Q.C.

On March 1, 2018

In Environmental, Fisheries Regulation

By: Alastair Lucas

PDF Version: A Missed Opportunity to Strengthen Compliance and Enforcement under the Federal Fisheries, Environmental Assessment and Canadian Energy Regulator Acts

Bills Commented On: Bill C-68, An Act to Amend the Fisheries Act, and Bill C-69, An Act to enact the Impact Assessment Act and the Canadian Energy Regulator Act, to amend the Navigation Protection Act and make consequential amendments to other Acts

Many expected changes and even new approaches to compliance and enforcement under Bills C-68 and C-69. Unfortunately, this is not the case.

In Search of #BetterRules: An Overview of Federal Environmental Bills C-68 and C-69

By Martin Olszynski

On February 15, 2018

In Environmental, Fisheries Regulation

By: Martin Olszynski

PDF Version: In Search of #BetterRules: An Overview of Federal Environmental Bills C-68 and C-69

Legislation Commented On: An Act to amend the Fisheries Act and other Acts in consequence (Bill C-68) and An Act to enact the Impact Assessment Act and the Canadian Energy Regulator Act, to amend the Navigation Protection Act and to make consequential amendments to other Acts (Bill C-69)

Last week, the federal government tabled its much-anticipated package of federal environmental law reforms. Regular ABlawg readers will know that the Faculty of Law’s Natural Resources, Energy, and Environmental Law group has been actively participating in this process from the beginning, with several members submitting briefs and testifying before both parliamentary committees and expert panels (a full list of relevant ABlawg posts is included at the end of this post). In this post, I provide an initial overview and analysis of Bill C-68 (Fisheries Act) and the proposed Impact Assessment Act under Bill C-69. Subsequent posts will examine specific issues in more detail, as well as the proposed Canadian Energy Regulator Act.