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.

Comprehensive geospatial inventories (Targets 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 10, 21)

Recommended Investment:

$300 million over five years to support a comprehensive audit to catalog, update, and develop national geospatial inventories to support evidence-informed decision making regarding environmental protection, rehabilitation, and enhancement. [ECCC, StatCan, DFO, NRCan, AAFC]

Key Actions:

  • In collaboration with subnational governments, Indigenous communities, non-governmental organizations, and other federal departments, conduct and complete comprehensive audits of existing datasets to assess the quality, accuracy, and completeness of current geospatial datasets.
  • Develop, update, and complete national geospatial inventories such as the Canadian National Wetland Inventory, the National Grasslands Inventory, Terrestrial and Aquatic Species at Risk Inventories, National Forest Inventory, and National Invasive Species Inventory.

Rationale:

  • Environmental impact
    • Supports evidence-informed decision-making.
    • Protects, rehabilitates, enhances, and sustains ecosystems.
    • Facilitates accurate valuation, conservation, and restoration of biodiversity and ecosystem services.
  • Economic benefit
    • Informs nature-based climate solutions, potentially reducing climate related costs.
    • Improves data leading to more efficient use of resources and funding in conservation efforts.
    • Improves land use planning and decision-making.
    • Drives innovation and job creation in the technology and environmental sectors, contributing to economic growth and resilience.
  • Social and community impact
    • Enhances collaboration with Indigenous communities, promotes cultural and ecological benefits.
    • Supports community planning and resilience efforts.

Subsidy reform: Aligning investments with halting and reversing biodiversity loss by 2030 (Target 18)

Canada’s new 2030 Nature Strategy includes a commitment to “identify by 2025, and eliminate, phase out or reform incentives, including subsidies, harmful for biodiversity, in a proportionate, just, fair, effective and equitable way, while substantially and progressively reducing them… by 2030…”. This commitment, consistent with Target 18 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, offers a tremendous opportunity to catalyze a nature- positive economy in Canada.

Current spending on practices that degrade nature far exceeds spending on practices that can conserve and restore it. Action is urgently needed to identify environmentally harmful subsidies (EHS)
in Canada and to pursue innovations in federal subsidy and tax reform, budgeting and policymaking to improve coherence between economic and environmental policies, and reorient the flow of public capital to catalyze new nature-positive economic opportunities.

The Green Budget Coalition welcomes and supports the government’s commitment to compile an inventory of incentives that may have an impact on biodiversity by mid-2025, and, by 2030, to develop and implement a plan that substantially reduces the value of incentives and subsidies with harmful impacts on biodiversity.

Recommendation:

The 2025 federal budget should explicitly commit to develop a systematic, cross- departmental implementation plan in 2025, and to eliminate, phase out or reform at least $10 billion in harmful subsidies by 2030 (Canada’s share, by percentage of global GDP, of the GBF commitment to reduce subsidies by $500 billion). (Target 18). [FIN, ECCC, DFO, AAFC, NRCan]

Accelerating restoration of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems in the UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030)

Total Recommended Investment:

$560 million over five years, coupled with directing up to $1.94 billion in existing funds to achieve restoration targets, goals, and commitments. [NRCan, ECCC, PC, DFO, AAFC]

This investment is to ensure that by 2030 at least 30% of areas of degraded terrestrial, inland water, coastal and marine ecosystems are under effective restoration to enhance biodiversity and ecosystem functions as agreed to in Target 2 of the Kunming- Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF). Restoration of plant and animal communities benefits both people and biodiversity. Restored areas provide ecosystem services such as water purification, flood protection and resilience, recreational values, and climate change mitigation through the restoration of blue carbon ecosystems as well as the forests, grasslands and wetlands that sustain wildlife and sequester carbon.

Robust efforts and a highly ambitious plan are required to meet Target 2 of the KMGBF, commitments under the Freshwater Challenge, and the initial pledge of approximately 19 million hectares of terrestrial ecosystems in need of restoration under the Bonn Challenge.

Achieving Canada’s restoration goals will require:

  • A commitment of funds and the establishment of targets for the restoration of degraded lands, coastal areas, and freshwater habitats;
  • The support and mobilization of land and water stewards with jurisdiction and authority over degraded habitats (Indigenous Peoples, federal- land stewards, land stewards in other levels of government, private landowners);
  • Policies and programs ensuring benefit sharing with Indigenous Peoples in the restoration economy;
  • An increase in the number of trained restoration professionals working to identify and apply the restoration approaches necessary to achieve the targets for specific regions and habitats (e.g., on land: active and passive restoration, prescribed fire, revegetation, invasive species control); and
  • Establishing the regional demand for restoration materials (primarily seeds and trees) so that a regionally appropriate supply of materials can be built over time.

To that end, the Green Budget Coalition recommends that the federal government:

1. Establish a working group to coordinate restoration efforts across government

It is imperative to foster collaboration within the federal government and across other levels of government to establish targets, definitions, define baselines, and work toward the following goals:

  • Improving the integration of existing restoration programs to measure impact and maximize cross jurisdictional efforts and build a share network of best practice, data and knowledge sharing;
  • Supporting work to direct and expand existing funding, or establish new funds;
  • Create new, or reform existing, permitting processes and mechanisms to address overlapping jurisdiction to facilitate and expedite restoration;
  • Supporting Indigenous-led restoration and Indigenous participation in the restoration economy; and
  • Establish a common platform for tracking and reporting on progress.

$10 million over five years [PC, ECCC, NRCan]

2. Support a national seed supply for land- based restoration

For Canada to meet its international commitments to restore degraded areas, approximately 95 million kilograms of ecologically appropriate native grass and wildflower seed would be required. Current supply is insufficient. Canada does not currently have the native seed supply necessary to meet these committed targets. Other countries including the United States and Australia have recognized this and taken action.

To achieve Target 2, the Bonn Challenge goal, and ensure equitable inclusion of Indigenous people in the restoration economy, the following steps should be considered:

  • Build an inter-departmental federal leadership team to support the creation of a robust seed supply by:
    • Developing policies that favour use of local, native plants in restoration and reclamation (e.g., procurement policies) – which will generate consistent and predictable seed demand.
    • Supporting the development of a national native seed industry association to meet existing standards for bulk seed within the Seeds Act and enabling a seed source certification program.
    • Estimating native seed demand regionally across Canada – where demand exists, where priority areas for seed-based restoration exist, and what species are required.
    • Encouraging/incentivizing provincial, territorial, and municipal partners to adopt policies and practices (e.g., rights-of-way vegetation management) that favour use of local, native plants in restoration and reclamation.
  • Provide greater financial support to native seed producers for infrastructure, technology, and creation of an ecoregional seed tracking and labeling program, a code of ethics, and seed certification program.
  • Provide financial support to new and existing regional and provincial native seed partnerships and networks to allow them to pool native seed needs and build forward contracting systems with native seed growers.
  • Provide support for the agricultural sector to build native seed production on agricultural lands.
  • Increase seed storage capacity across Canada by leveraging existing infrastructure (e.g. AAFC research farms, NRCAN National Tree Seed Centre) and building new facilities.

$50 million over five years [NRCan, AAFC, ECCC]

3. Direct existing funds to contribute to Canada’s restoration goals

There are substantial programs and funding currently in place that can be leveraged to restore degraded habitat and achieve Target 2. The table below provides a partial list of applicable programs and estimates of the funding that could be directed to restoration.

$1.936 billion over six years [multiple departments, see table on page 65]

4. Expand the Aquatic Ecosystems Restoration Fund

Renew and expand the fund to include both coastal and inland aquatic ecosystems with the following recommendations for the design of the fund:

  • Allocate a portion of the fund to build and sustain regional habitat partnerships to increase collaboration and leverage regional capacity for ecosystem restoration;
  • Ensure restoration funding mechanisms
    cover the scale and timeframe necessary for identification of priority sites and assessment of restoration outcomes and benefits;
  • Support the development and implementation of regional habitat restoration plans;
  • Increase the capacity of Indigenous organizations, non-governmental organizations, and local stewardship groups to implement high-quality restoration projects;
  • Allocate a portion of the fund to establish a fish-passage program to restore access to habitat for priority species; and
  • Make enhanced carbon sequestration through the restoration of blue carbon ecosystems an objective of the fund.

$200 million over six years [DFO]

5. Establish the Terrestrial Ecosystems Restoration Fund

Invest in a new terrestrial ecosystem restoration fund managed by ECCC in collaboration with AAFC that focuses on restoring degraded lands. This fund would support restoration of wetlands, native grasslands, meadows, riparian areas, and native forests that are not covered by existing funding programs.

Restoration projects can begin in the first year as there are shovel ready projects across Canada. In parallel with initiating restoration of priority ecosystems, federal and provincial governments should work to define (building on existing international work), identify and map degraded areas such as marginally economically productive agricultural lands, rail/road/energy rights of ways, and altered riparian or coastal areas, as well as develop terrestrial restoration priorities with timelines and targets, incorporating existing federal program priorities such as the ECCC Priority Places for species at risk.

$300 million over six years [ECCC]

Marine spatial planning (MSP)

Halting and reversing the serious declines in ocean biodiversity and providing certainty among economic sectors dependent on the ocean, will require investments in the establishment of marine protected areas and the development of marine spatial plans.

It is no coincidence that the commitment to develop participatory, integrated and biodiversity inclusive spatial plans is the focus of the first target of the Global Biodiversity framework. MSP can provide foundational support to meeting the GBFs other targets in the marine environment, both with regards to halting and reversing biodiversity loss and ensuring the equitable sharing of the benefits and services that healthy ecosystems provide.

For MSP to be successful requires the investment of adequate funding, as well as setting objectives that are aligned with the goals of the GBF to provide decision makers with clear guidance on setting priorities and making trade-offs. Alignment of MSP with the GBF means that the development of conservation area networks must be the first priority in any spatial planning initiatives, as a healthy ocean is the very foundation of a thriving blue economy.

Marine spatial planning is an inclusive, comprehensive, and strategic approach to the use and management of ocean space and marine resources while protecting ecosystems, ensuring sustainability, and reducing overlap and conflicts between uses. MSP optimizes societal benefits from human activities while at the same time providing long-term protection of nature. MSP is a process that is being used by countries around the world.

MSP requires new governance arrangements that bring together various levels of government, including Indigenous governments, and the variety of stakeholders with an interest in the ocean region. The success of MSP hinges on a participatory approach and comprehensive governance. New governance arrangements, particularly with Indigenous peoples, is a critical component of successful MSP, and will require capacity support and ongoing funding. Building relationships and ensuring effective Indigenous and stakeholder engagement requires funding certainty that cannot be met with short term budget commitments.

The Government of Canada is currently proceeding with MSP in five regions, including: Southern BC; Newfoundland and Labrador Shelves; Estuary and Gulf of Saint Lawrence; Scotian Shelf and Bay of Fundy; and the Pacific North Coast. First generation plans or frameworks for the five regions are to be completed in 2024, but ongoing funding is required to continue collaborative processes, and support implementation and consultation in the development of full marine spatial plans, and to begin MSP in Canada’s remaining eight regions.

The original investment for MSP was made in 2018 with a one-year extension in 2023.

Recommended Investment:

$75 million over five years, then $15 million per year, ongoing [DFO, ECCC, PC, NRCan, TC]