At a Glance

The loss and degradation of habitat is the primary threat for most species at risk. To address this threat, it is important to identify the location of the critical habitat that species use. Environment and Climate Change Canada, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, and Parks Canada identified critical habitat using the best available information at the time. In most cases, additional information was needed to further identify the critical habitat through a schedule of studies. However, most studies necessary for the full identification of critical habitat were not completed on time, which could jeopardize the recovery of species at risk.

Environment and Climate Change Canada and Fisheries and Oceans Canada did limited monitoring of the implementation of planned actions from action plans to conserve critical habitat on federal land. The organizations clearly linked only 57% of the planned actions to documentation on activities undertaken. This resulted in a lack of focused effort to get conservation actions completed to conserve and restore critical habitat, which is important to the recovery of most species at risk. This could affect the federal government’s ability to meet its commitment to take urgent action to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030.

Activities resulting in the harmful alteration, disruption, or destruction of fish habitat are prohibited unless otherwise authorized. As a last resort, offset measures to counterbalance the harm done to the critical habitat must be considered. Even though Fisheries and Oceans Canada followed its processes to approve authorizations for activities that destroy or degrade critical habitat, we identified an offset implementation risk when there is no finalized offsetting plan in place prior to granting an authorization. In addition, the department did not have an assessment of how the offsetting plans performed overall.