Category: Complementary Recommendations to Deliver on Canada’s 2030 Nature Strategy

Invasive species – Controlling their economic, social, and environmental impacts (Target 6)

Recommended Investment:

$250 million over five years to effectively manage and mitigate the catastrophic economic, social, and environmental impacts of invasive species in Canada. [ECCC, AAFC, DFO, CFIA, NRCan, PS, HC]

The impacts of invasive species on native ecosystems, habitats, and species is catastrophic and often irreversible. In Canada, invasive species are frequently and increasingly identified as a top threat to species at risk and economic impacts result in billions of annual losses. In the early 1960s, invasive species cost North America USD $2 billion per year, which has increased to over USD $26 billion per year since 2010. Significant impacts to the agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and tourism sectors are experienced, with the Canadian agriculture sector alone estimating a $2.2 billion annual economic impact from invasive plants.

Key Actions:

  • Prevent new invasive species by identifying key pathways for the introduction and provide education, resources, and training. [ECCC, PS, CFIA, AAFC]
  • Develop, implement, and monitor a National Framework for Early Detection and Rapid Response to ensure effective and early response to new and emerging invasive species. [CFIA, AAFC, ECCC, DFO, NRCan, HC]
  • Enable and support cross-sectoral partnerships in planning, control, monitoring, and reporting to restore and improve habitats. [ECCC, DFO, AAFC, CFIA, NRCan, PS]
  • Ensure access to, and encourage the use of, strong science to inform management and provide transparent reporting to evaluate effectiveness of programs and policies. [ECCC, DFO]

Rationale:

  • Environmental impact
    • Invasive species are one of the direct drivers of biodiversity loss causing irreversible damage to native ecosystems and habitats.
    • Effective management of invasive species will restore and improve habitats, ensuring healthier ecosystems.
  • Economic benefit
    • Significant economic impacts are seen in agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and tourism. Addressing invasive species can mitigate losses to Canada’s GDP.
  • Social and community impact
    • Supports community wellbeing, fostering stronger local involvement and stewardship.
    • Increases public awareness and participation in preventing and managing invasive species through education and training initiatives.
    • Enhances cultural and ecological resilience of peoples and communities.
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Halting and reversing losses of Canada’s bird populations (Targets 2, 3, 4, 10, 21)

Ecosystems in Canada and throughout much of the Americas depend on the ecological services provided by the billions of birds born in Canada annually, including seed dispersal, nutrient cycling, pest management and more. We cannot afford to allow our bird populations to decline further due to human actions. In this budget, the Green Budget Coalition urges the federal government to make a meaningful investment in birds by funding efforts to reduce human-caused risks to birds and improve their habitats. Specifically, there is a need for investments that help birds survive and thrive in urban landscapes, agricultural landscapes and in the vast working forests. Investments are needed to halt losses and recover populations of the most threatened groups of species, the aerial insectivores, grassland birds and shorebirds.

The third State of Canada’s Birds report will be published in 2024. Funding to support the science and monitoring programs on which the state of the bird reporting is based is essential to inform conservation and management decisions.

The Green Budget Coalition is calling for strategic investments to halt and reverse bird population declines through the following investments:

Total Recommended Investment:

$30 million over four years [ECCC – Canadian Wildlife Service] to:

  1. Mitigate human-related bird mortality in urban and working landscapes (agricultural and forestry) in Canada. This investment is intended to support programs and activities that directly address major human-related causes of direct and indirect bird mortality (e.g., destruction of habitat, pesticide use, collisions with human-built structures) and incentivize actions to restore nature. $12 million over four years
  2. Protect and restore key habitats and areas for grassland birds, aerial insectivores and shorebirds. Develop and implement an action plan to identify, prioritize, and protect critical areas for these three groups of species. $12 million over four years
  3. Maintain strong science programs to inform conservation efforts. $6 million over four years
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Ecological connectivity: Nationwide fund and wildlife crossings pilot program

This recommendation complements and strengthens the earlier recommendation for Ecological connectivity: Renewal of Parks Canada’s Ecological Corridors program.

Ecological connectivity is fundamental to tackling the top threats to biodiversity: habitat loss and fragmentation, and climate change. Federal investment is needed for a nation-wide connectivity fund to support work by Crown and Indigenous governments, NGOs, and private entities to conserve areas identified as important for ecological connectivity and to create effective mitigation measures to improve connectivity of fragmented landscapes.

The Green Budget Coalition also recommends establishing a pilot federal wildlife crossings Program. Taking guidance from the successful US Wildlife Crossing Program model, the pilot program would fund provincial and federal wildlife crossings projects in critical regional wildlife linkage areas with high wildlife-vehicle collisions and would: protect biodiversity by maintaining wildlife-movement routes; address climate change as species’ ranges shift; move people and wildlife more safely across roads; increase the efficiency of transportation; stimulate local economies; and create jobs. The pilot could be delivered under Canada’s Natural Infrastructure Fund, if the Fund were expanded to include wildlife crossing structures.

Recommended Investment:

$500 million over five years for a nationwide connectivity fund, and a federal wildlife crossing pilot program [ECCC, PC, HICC]

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Establishing an endowment fund (The Canada Conservation Investment Fund) to strengthen the private land conservation sector

Across the country, local and regional land trusts protect hundreds of thousands of hectares of the most endangered landscapes, particularly in southern Canada where nature loss is most acute. Establishing a Canada Conservation Endowment Fund program will provide the necessary infrastructure and funding for land trusts to support a growing sector, diversity, capacity, job creation and retention, land stewardship, and expansion of Canada’s private land conservation programs. Federal funding to expand protected areas is critical to nature conservation, and to uphold the designation of “permanent” protection, perpetual stewardship is imperative.

A Canada Conservation Investment Fund will help ensure the long-term care of Canada’s network of privately conserved areas. The structure of the Fund could be modelled on the successful Canada Cultural Investment Fund.

Recommended Investment:

$150 million over ten years for an endowment fund that will create a long-term funding stream to strengthen the capacity of local and regional land trusts to care for natural spaces in perpetuity. [ECCC]

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Establish a new Habitat Infrastructure Renewal Fund

Canada was one of the first countries in the world to introduce national initiatives for nature conservation by government and non-profit organizations. This history of conservation has led to legacy conservation projects developed in partnership between government and non-profits. Many of these projects have involved conservation infrastructure. While the federal government has made significant investments in infrastructure renewal for Parks Canada and the Canadian Wildlife Service, only modest funding has been made available to non-profit conservation organizations which share the same history of intervention on the landscape to secure conservation gains. The Green Budget Coalition recommends the creation of a fund that would help not-for-profit conservancies who have made interventions on the landscape to advance ecological outcomes and protect natural spaces to reinvest in the conservation infrastructure that has made these gains for nature possible.

Recommended Investment:

$150 million over four years [ECCC, PC]

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