Orca population face 'possible extinction' as feds push for a new B.C. port
A B.C. environmental organization is warning that a new B.C. port being designated as a “project of national interest” might result in the loss of the southern resident killer whales.
The federal government announced earlier today that it is giving this designation to Roberts Bank Terminal 2, which it said “provides the immediate regulatory certainty” to build the terminal in Delta.
The final investment decision on this B.C. port is expected to be made in 2027.
The Wilderness Committee, an environmental non-profit, immediately slammed the designation, saying the federal government announced it “just two days after the project was expected to receive a decision on its Species at Risk Act (SARA) authorization.”
“The timing raises serious concerns that the designation is being used to evade the project’s final, and arguably most important permit, and with it responsibilities to avoid the extinction of the endangered southern resident killer whales,” a release from the Wilderness Committee reads.
The organization said that the southern resident killer whales face risk from weakening environmental protections and regulations, as well as the fact that Roberts Bank Terminal 2 could be used “as the end point of the Pacific Link pipeline.”
They said this is because the 2025 Building Canada Act and proposed Bill C-39 would allow the government to “ignore the advice of Fisheries and Oceans Canada.” The organization further suggested that the timing of the announcement could mean that “the department was not able to justify granting the permit” and the project of national interest designation “was the only viable way to bypass that.”
The Wilderness Committee added that under Bill C-39, the Pacific Link pipeline could also bypass an environmental assessment process and its “responsibilities” under the Species at Risk Act.
“This could mean the cumulative impacts of both projects on endangered southern resident killer whales are never fully assessed, while the very safeguards designed to prevent their extinction are weakened or bypassed,” they wrote.
Lucero Gonzalez, the conservation and policy campaigner for the Wilderness Committee, said that the organization is calling on the government to have both the Roberts Bank Terminal 2 project and the Pacific Link pipeline undergo the entirety of the requirements under the Species at Risk Act.
“If either or both projects cannot prove that their activities will not jeopardize the survival of the species, they must be rejected. Anything less puts the potential extinction of the remaining 76 southern resident killer whales in Mark Carney’s hands.”
In the federal government release, they said they would invest almost $2 billion to protect “rotect fish and fish habitat, marine mammals, Pacific salmon, southern resident killer whales, and other species at risk,” she said in the release.
The federal government said that Roberts Bank Terminal 2 contributes to its goal to double exports to non-U.S. markets by 2035, adding that “modern ports are crucial to this mission.”
“They move goods quickly, attract investment, and ensure Canada competes in a rapidly changing global economy,” reads the government release.