August 10th, 2020

The Honourable , P.C., M.P. Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the House of Commons , K1A 0A6

Re: Recovery must also be Blue - Keeping oceans central to recovery planning; meeting request

Dear Minister Jordan,

We would like to acknowledge and thank the government for its significant efforts to address the health and well-being of Canadians during the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing economic crisis, whilst also furthering your commitment to protect Canada’s Oceans. As you and Cabinet colleagues engage in the challenging conversations regarding stimulus initiatives and a healthy recovery for Canada, we are writing to offer recommendations for initiatives that we believe are necessary to maintain the health of the ocean, as well as our coastal communities and marine-based economies, consistent with the commitments from the November 2019 mandate letters.

We represent a diverse group of environmental organizations, both regional and national in scope, that have been working for decades to protect and recover marine ecosystems and species and to help build thriving coastal communities. These recommendations are intended to complement previous recommendations from the conservation sector about recovery planning, with a focus on outlining critical high level ocean, or “blue” priorities.

We applaud the federal government’s ongoing commitment to galvanize international support for more ambitious ocean conservation targets, the most recent example of which is reflected in Canada joining the Global Ocean Alliance. We are greatly encouraged by comments from you and the Prime Minister on Oceans Day and at the World Economic Forum, where the government highlighted its ongoing commitment to protecting oceans and to investing in ocean health as core components of Canada’s recovery process. We are also following closely the important ongoing work of formulating a Blue Economy Strategy. We offer the following as contributions for how Canada can follow through on these commitments, along with our offer to work with you towards their realization.

We urge that Canada’s recovery planning include actions and investments across five blue priorities to ensure a healthy ocean can help sustain our collective recovery. Indigenous-led solutions and co-governance arrangements with Indigenous nations should be considered central to each. Done respectfully,

1 ocean-centred recovery efforts can make important contributions towards reconciliation with Indigenous peoples from coast to coast to coast.

1. Ensure healthy oceans for healthy communities 2. Protect and restore important coastal and marine ecosystems 3. Invest in natural climate solutions and a just transition for ocean economies 4. Reduce ocean pollution 5. Attach blue strings to recovery investments

Oceans are taken for granted, and yet, as the Prime Minister has pointed out, they are an essential service to all. Our fisheries and marine ecosystems are the basis of the culture and economy for many coastal communities, particularly Indigenous communities. Due to entrenched structural inequities Indigenous, Black, and other marginalized communities have been hit hardest by COVID-19, just as they stand to suffer most from the ongoing impacts of climate change and biodiversity loss. Programs and spending must prioritize these communities to ensure a just recovery for all.

More than 7 million Canadians live on or near the coast and Canada’s ocean economy contributes more than $35 billion to the national economy and employs more than 350,000 people. The oceans are a highly complex and integrated environment that provide us with an array of ecosystem services, but whose contributions and mysteries are in many ways still unknown. It is imperative we continue improving our understanding and support strong stewardship of them if we want oceans to provide for Canadians and the world, both now and in the future.

1. Ensure Healthy Oceans for Healthy Communities

Canada’s marine environments provide us with a spectacular complexity of marine life that Canadians value, enjoy, and depend on. In many regions, these resources represent a fundamental input to the economy.

Managed sustainably, these marine resources can continue to provide a key component of Canada’s food and economic security for years to come. Unfortunately, many of our marine ecosystems are degraded and many fish stocks are in serious decline. From right whales to orcas, from salmon to cod, marine species are in trouble.

Rebuilding marine populations and ecosystems must be a key component of the federal government’s commitment to ocean recovery and protecting biological diversity. Canada is home to over 30 aquatic species with a COSEWIC designation of threatened or endangered that await listing under the Species at Risk Act or recovery actions under the Fisheries Act. There are also dozens of

2 freshwater and marine species listed under SARA, but still awaiting critical habitat declarations and the required recovery action plans. The Species at Risk Advisory Committee must be reactivated as well as species-specific multi- stakeholder networks such as the North Atlantic right whale recovery network to support species recovery.

There is a need and an opportunity to enhance Canada’s capacity to monitor, manage and enforce fishing and aquaculture measures and to implement ecosystem-based management, the Sustainable Fisheries Framework, and improved regulations under the Fisheries Act. Over 30% of fish stocks are in the ‘cautious’ or ‘critical’ zones and need immediate rebuilding attention and precautionary management plans. Investing in the core responsibilities of Canada’s ocean governance are critical to protect, maintain, and recover marine biodiversity for sustainable use.

Ocean-centred recovery efforts must invest in the generation and principled application of science and the recognition of Indigenous knowledge and governance. It is only when ocean users, managers and elected representatives heed and act on the best available science and knowledge that we see a recovery of species and ecosystems and enduring success.

It is imperative that we extend our notion of sustainability to include not only ecological biodiversity, but socio-economic diversification and resilience that ensures thriving coastal communities and marine value chains in the future. Communities must be partners in ocean management, research, and monitoring. Policies that support local and traditional knowledge and small-scale fishing and sustainable aquaculture along with opportunities for community-led management and businesses can create more adaptable and diverse economies that are responsive to increasing changes in our oceans and seafood markets.

The Recovery Opportunity: Investments in science and knowledge in the service of protecting and restoring biodiversity will always pay off. Continued re- investment in core government responsibilities of monitoring and management provides jobs for physical and social scientists, managers, and enforcement personnel. This investment is crucial to tackle ever-increasing complexities in ocean management. Continued investment in research and development in the service of conservation and innovation towards more sustainable fishing, shellfish and closed containment recirculating finfish aquaculture, and other marine industries will support healthy oceans and have significant commercial spinoffs. Enabling policies and investment in community-led and Indigenous management as well as small to medium sized seafood and marine sector businesses need to be an essential focus of recovery to support local employment and thriving coastal communities.

2. Protect and Restore Important Coastal and Marine Ecosystems

3 In recent years the federal government has made significant progress towards protecting Canada’s marine environment and has stepped up in international fora to push for greater ambition in global commitments under the Convention on Biological Diversity. With the government’s target of protecting 25% of Canada’s oceans by 2025 and 30% by 2030, there is a need to scale-up investments commensurate with these goals and maintain Canada’s reputation as a global leader in conservation.

Conserving and restoring coastal and marine habitats can help meet Canada’s objectives of maintaining ecosystem services, protecting species at risk and recovering the abundance of marine life, while providing important economic stimulus and cultural benefits.

In addition to supporting the overall health of our oceans, an investment in marine protection is an investment in coastal communities. Creating new marine protected areas (MPAs) that recognize Indigenous governance, and supporting Indigenous nations interested in designating Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas, provide an opportunity for long-term and meaningful job creation in remote coastal areas. They also create investment in important coastal infrastructure, and indirect benefits through goods and services provided during planning and management. Beyond MPA establishment, it is critical that Canada invest sufficient resources towards their ongoing management, monitoring and enforcement, including through Indigenous Guardian programs.

The Recovery Opportunity: Investments in MPA establishment, governance, management and monitoring can provide important jobs for scientists, planners, managers, enforcement staff and educators in remote and coastal communities. Establishing Indigenous Guardian programs to support monitoring and enforcement will provide training and employment opportunities for Indigenous communities while advancing reconciliation and supporting co-governance. Protected areas also support jobs in tourism and the service industry in local communities. In the wake of COVID, youth are facing the highest levels of unemployment. There is significant opportunity for investments in the restoration of critical coastal and ocean ecosystems to provide jobs and training for youth and others in coastal communities alongside gains for biodiversity and carbon storage.

3. Invest in Natural Climate Solutions and a Just Transition for Ocean Economies

Oceans are already experiencing the effects of climate change. They are becoming warmer and more acidic, sea levels are rising and coastlines are being pounded by more frequent and damaging storms and flooding. These changes are affecting ocean life and coastal communities. Scientists are already

4 documenting changes in distribution of marine species, including commercially harvested species such as lobster.

Stimulus funding programs and policy frameworks like the Blue Economy Strategy should give priority to addressing the effects of climate change on marine species and supporting coastal communities, especially marginalized communities, and ocean users to adapt to these changes. Understanding oceans as a sink and source of greenhouse gases (GHGs) is also crucial.

Rising sea levels present major challenges for coastal communities and infrastructure. In many parts of coastal Canada, roads are being washed out, wharves broken up, and homes flooded. These impacts will only accelerate in the coming decades. In some cases, infrastructure will simply have to be abandoned. Stimulus efforts should help municipalities, provinces and Indigenous communities across the country adapt to this major challenge.

Marine industries are also a source of GHG emissions. Canada must chart a just transition for its ocean industries. With appropriate governance and regulation, so as to protect ecosystems and other ocean users, the ocean can be a major source of renewable energy. The offshore wind industry is looking to invest in Atlantic Canada. Despite the challenges, investment and innovation continue in the tidal industry. In Europe, investment in ocean renewables is surpassing investment in offshore oil and gas. It is imperative that a Blue Economy Strategy invest in the management structures and approaches, such as Integrated Management as set out in the Oceans Act, that will ensure sustainable development of emerging industries like offshore wind.

As Canada and the world transitions to low-carbon energy sources, Canada must end offshore oil and gas development. Continued subsidization of offshore exploration will not help Canada or Canadian workers reset for a stronger, healthier future.

Marine transportation is also a major source of GHGs and other air pollutants. The industry is facing tightening regulations on emissions. The Canadian Government needs to support the shipping, fishing and other ocean industries in transitioning to cleaner fuel sources. In seeking transformational opportunities, we believe that Canada can advance the application of new technologies, such as hydrogen fuel cells, and practices to provide highly skilled employment opportunities and achieve benefits for decarbonization and to protect marine wildlife.

The Recovery Opportunity: Reducing emissions from marine activities is a major opportunity for Canada’s ocean industries and a climate imperative. Stimulus efforts must seize this opportunity. Strong policies and targeted investments can generate long-term employment and sustainable prosperity. A

5 just transition for workers, industry and communities should be a key feature of any stimulus spending and the Blue Economy Strategy.

There is also a major opportunity for Canada to invest in restoring and maintaining natural infrastructure for storm and sewage water management. This includes investments in areas such as wetlands, saltmarshes, coastal buffers and rain gardens in order to provide economic stimulus while reducing risks to the health of our oceans and marine life.

4. Reduce Ocean Pollution

Many of Canada’s largest cities are located on the shores of our oceans and unfortunately contribute persistent flows of toxic effluent and storm water drainage into rivers and ultimately the marine environment. Significant upgrades in sewage and storm water collection facilities are needed to reduce toxic loading into the environment.

In recent years, awareness and concern about plastic pollution has surged. Canadians across a range of demographics and party affiliations want to see action on plastics. Stimulus efforts must go beyond cleaning up fishing gear or beach sweeps to stopping the flow of plastics into the ocean. For the fishing industry, this requires putting in place policies and infrastructure that ensure fishing materials get brought back to shore whenever possible and, where programs exist, recycled. As our awareness about the ubiquity of micro-plastics grows, including its presence in seafood, we need to prevent the ocean from being a sink for plastic particles.

Shipping plays a vital role in the trade of goods and is essential to our national economy. At the same time, shipping can have negative effects on the marine environment. There is a level of new infrastructure that could be developed to modernize ships and port facilities to reduce risks of ship-based pollution in marine environments.

The Recovery Opportunity: Investments in improving sewage and water collection and treatment facilities in coastal municipalities and Indigenous communities could make important contributions to ocean health as well as provide economic stimulus and employment benefits. Local priorities should be assessed, but communities would likely welcome funding interventions across a range of levels, including upgrading treatment facilities from primary to secondary or tertiary, separating sewage and stormwater pipes, and eliminating straight pipes in rural areas.

Investments in the installation of collection and recycling facilities for plastics at ports and wharves across Canada will create employment and new industries in the circular economy. There is also a need to invest in research and industry

6 innovation to develop new materials that don’t shed plastic particles into the marine environment.

Canada could realize both job stimulus and economic efficiencies in shipping by stimulating opportunities for Canadian companies to be innovators in reducing ship effluent pollution, noise pollution, marine invasive species and the risk of catastrophic spills.

5. Attach ‘Blue Strings’ to Recovery Investments

In addition to a global health crisis, Canada and the world are also facing a biodiversity and climate crisis. COVID has thrown into sharper relief some of the disparities that exist in our society and the intersections between human wellbeing, sustainable economies, climate and nature.

Stimulus spending and Canada’s Blue Economy Strategy must not contain measures that undermine or contradict Canada’s commitments to conservation and shared social goals. Any funding delivered under a stimulus program for oceans must preserve and accelerate action on biodiversity and climate change. We cannot ‘take one step forward and two steps back’.

Achieving Canada’s commitments to address the climate and biodiversity crises, ensuring a just and sustainable economic recovery, and supporting reconciliation with Indigenous peoples will require transformational change. Stimulus spending should have blue strings attached to ensure industries are part of a just recovery and contributing to the transformational change required.

Analysis by Energy Tracker indicates that up to 13.5 billion dollars of stimulus funding has gone to the fossil fuel industry in Canada in 2020, including to offshore oil and gas, without environmental conditions attached. Lacking ‘blue strings’, such spending undermines efforts to reduce Canada’s emissions as well as our credibility as a climate leader. It also delays the inevitable transition to cleaner sources of energy.

In order to prioritize the development of a circular economy and ensure that progress on marine biodiversity protection is not undermined by the expansion of harmful industrial activities, no investments or policy inducements for oil and gas or deepsea mining in Canada’s marine waters should occur. Similarly, recovery measures for fisheries should prioritize rebuilding stocks and equitable access for small-scale, inshore, and community fisheries without increasing unsustainable fisheries quota allocations or subsidies to large, consolidated corporate fisheries, which will expand destructive fishing practices.

The Recovery Opportunity: In the face of climate change and biodiversity loss, the best investments we can make are those that support the long-term health

7 and resilience of ocean ecosystems and work toward a more just society. By attaching blue strings to stimulus spending, we can accelerate the critical transition to a low-carbon economy and kickstart the rebuilding of ocean ecosystems following decades of unsustainable use. While supporting workers, communities and industry through the recovery period, we must not miss out on the opportunity to spur the transformational change needed by attaching conditions to this spending.

In closing, Canada’s oceans and fisheries are among our most important resources, providing significant economic and non-economic value to Canadians. Strategic investments and policy reforms that enhance the health and protection of our oceans are essential to ensure a resilient economic recovery, boost food security, and support the culture, health and well-being outcomes of all Canadians.

We request a meeting to discuss these recommendations and their application to stimulus and recovery planning, spending, and related policy development including the Blue Economy Strategy.

Thank you again for your recent commitments to the oceans and we look forward to working with you towards a healthy blue-green recovery for Canada.

Sincerely,

Shannon Arnold, Senior Marine Program Coordinator Ecology Action Centre

Graham Saul, Executive Director Nature Canada

Alexandra Barron, National Director, Ocean Program Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society

Gretchen Fitzgerald, National Programs Directors Sierra Club Canada Foundation

Karen Wristen, Executive Director Living Oceans Society

Brooke Nodding, Executive Director Coastal Action

Jay Ritchlin, Director-General Western Canada David Suzuki Foundation

8 Lisa Mitchell, Executive Director East Coast Environmental Law

Matthew Abbott, Marine Program Director Conservation Council of New Brunswick

Ian McAllister, Executive Director Pacific Wild

Stephanie Hewson, Staff Lawyer West Coast Environmental Law

Sara Jenkins, Vice President Nature Newfoundland and Labrador

Dr. Stephen Sutton, Coordinator of Community Outreach & Engagement Atlantic Salmon Federation

Christianne Wilhelmson, Executive Director Georgia Strait Alliance

Dan Lewis, Executive Director Clayoquot Action

Bob Bancroft, President Nature Nova Scotia

Nikki Skuce, Director Northern Confluence Initiative

Cc: Minister of Environment and Climate Change Canada

The Honourable Catherine McKenna Minister of Infrastructure and Communities

The Honourable Minister of Transport

The Honourable Seamus O’Regan Minister of Natural Resources

Mr. , MP, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coastguard

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