Tell Canada to step in and protect Ontario's threatened caribou

Threatened caribou habitat, including caribou calving areas, is being cleared in northern Ontario. The provincial government is full steam ahead with its agenda to double logging and ramp up mining. It's also been rewriting laws to favour developers and undermine legal protections for vulnerable wildlife including boreal caribou.

It's time for Canada to step in and protect caribou habitat using its powers under the Species At Risk Act. When provinces fail, it's up to Canada to protect our vulnerable wildlife. We need your help to stand up to this juggernaut of destruction.

Wildlands League and colleagues petitioned the federal Minister of Environment in 2018 to take action to protect boreal caribou habitat. We outlined all the reasons why Ontario is failing and why Canada must act to meet its obligations under the Species At Risk Act.

Canada agreed. It gave Ontario an extra year to meet the deadline for protecting critical habitat from destruction. The deadline was November 2021. Ontario failed.

Canada can issue an order under the federal Species at Risk Act, to protect threatened critical habitat if the federal Minister of the Environment is of the opinion that the laws of a province or territory do not effectively protect the critical habitat of a federally listed species at risk. It's the country's 'safety net' for vulnerable wildlife. Time for it to be deployed in Ontario before it's too late. Many of Ontario's caribou are hanging on by a thread.

Tell Canada it must intervene. It's long overdue for Canada to apply an order using its powers under the Species at Risk Act to protect threatened caribou habitat.