Ed Struzik, Journal Staff Writer,
Edmonton, The Edmonton Journal, November 14, 1998.

Definitions

Categories used by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC):

Vulnerable: Species are of special concern because of characteristics that make them particularly sensitive to human activities or natural events.

Threatened: Species are likely to become endangered if limiting factors are not reversed.

Endangered: Species face imminent extinction or extirpation.

Extirpated: Species no longer exist in the wild in Canada, but they occur elsewhere.

Extinct: Species no longer exist anywhere.

The federal/provincial committee in charge of determining the status of endangered species in Canada is in danger of collapsing due to political interference, say scientists and conservationists involved in the process.

Federal and provincial ministers responsible for wildlife decided to change the way the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada works when they met in Victoria in September.

If their proposal goes ahead, six scientists on the committee will be stripped of their voting rights and the three national conservation organizations will lose their seats to government appointees.

The committee, set up in 1977, consists of university and government scientists, conservation groups and government representatives who use scientific information to determine if a species is threatened with extinction.

So far, it has considered 447 species and found 307 of them to face some degree of risk.

Scientists, conservationists and legal experts say the new proposals will politicize the process and undermine the committee’s credibility, especially after Ottawa passes its new Endangered Species Act, which will require government to act on the committee’s recommendations. Currently, there is no such requirement.

"I’m very concerned that the whole system relating to the listing of endangered species in Canada is in danger of collapse," says committee chair David Green, a McGill University scientist.

"This is very distressing because COSEWIC really has done a good job. The public can and has been assured that any decision to place a species on the endangered list was done so on sound scientific information."

Green says there is talk of "mass resignation" if the scientists are excluded from the process.

"People are really quite perturbed by this. It’s an awful lot to ask them to do all of this work on a voluntary basis and then shut them out of the decision making process."

Green says he doesn’t know what’s behind the changes. There was never any indication the federal government was considering moving in this direction, he said.

But government sources confirmed that the provinces and industry have been working hard to get a stronger say in the process before the new endangered species legislation is passed.

The last thing the committee needs is to be perceived as an organization that can be manipulated by politics and economic considerations, says past chair Erich Haber.

"Without scientific integrity, the whole process is undermined."

Kerry Newkirk, who represents the Canadian Wildlife Federation on the committee, says 90 per cent of the work done by the panel is done by the scientists.

Newkirk says he doesn’t know whether his organization, which was a founding member, will be forced to quit the committee.

But he says that replacing conservation groups and independent scientists with member of industry is not going to inspire public confidence.

Stuart Elgie, a lawyer with a keen interest in the proposed Endangered Species Act, says it’s clear that Ottawa is giving in to pressure from industry and the provinces.

"That would be a huge mistake," he said.

"No doubt, a lot of good decisions could still be made by COSEWIC, but you can bet that if putting a species on the endangered list threatens business in any way, there will be political interference.

"All you need to do is look at the Atlantic cod fishery to see that."