A species can be assessed as endangered in Canada and still spend years waiting for Ottawa to decide whether to protect it — while the habitat it needs to survive keeps changing.
A new study found that of 288 species assessed as at risk since 2017, just 17 reached the Governor in Council — the federal cabinet body that makes the final listing decision — within the recommended timeline. Another 153 — more than half — were overdue and still waiting as of Jan. 25, 2025.
That includes populations of caribou, beluga whales and lake sturgeon that have been assessed as endangered or threatened while they wait for listing decisions that can trigger habitat protections and a recovery plan.
The researchers say the bottleneck falls in a gap in the Species at Risk Act (SARA). Ottawa has recommended timelines for moving assessments forward, but no statutory deadline for one crucial stage of the process.
The study doesn’t say why the delays happen. Critics say the gap allows governments to put off tough choices between conservation and economic interests.
Peter Thompson, a postdoctoral researcher in biology at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, B.C., and lead author of the study, said the government is routinely missing the timelines it set for itself.
“The government recommended one to two years, and they are consistently failing to meet that,” he said.
A lake sturgeon rests along the riverbed. The Saskatchewan-Nelson River population was assessed as endangered in 2017 and has spent years awaiting a federal listing decision. (Eric Engbretson Underwater Photography/WWF-Canada)
The Saskatchewan-Nelson River population of lake sturgeon is one example. This ancient-looking fish can live for more than a century and grow up to three metres long.
COSEWIC, the independent scientific body that assesses wildlife, designated the population endangered in 2017 after declines of about 90 per cent since the 1960s. The study says it missed a recommended federal deadline for moving the assessment forward on Jan. 18, 2020, and was still awaiting the next step in the process five years later.
Thompson said the stakes are high because dams and other hydro projects have fragmented waterways and blocked the fish from moving between areas they rely on.
“It’s preventing these species from going where they need to go to survive,” he said.
What protection is delayed
A scientific assessment from COSEWIC does not, by itself, change a species’ legal status under SARA. That depends on the federal government formally listing or reclassifying them.
Under the Species at Risk Act, listing an endangered or threatened species can trigger prohibitions against killing, harming, harassing, capturing or taking it. The law also requires a recovery strategy, which must identify critical habitat where possible. Once that habitat is identified, SARA contains provisions requiring its protection.
Those protections are especially important for aquatic species because SARA’s core prohibitions apply to them across Canada, while for most terrestrial species they are generally limited to federal lands.
Drew Yewchuk, a lawyer and doctoral researcher at UBC’s Peter A. Allard School of Law, says a gap in the Species at Risk Act can allow governments to postpone difficult decisions about protecting species. (Submitted by Drew Yewchuk)
Drew Yewchuk, a lawyer and doctoral researcher at the University of British Columbia’s Peter A. Allard School of Law who did not work on the study, said habitat protection is one of SARA’s most consequential tools.
“If the animals don’t have habitat to live on, they don’t live,” he said.
SARA requires the environment minister to publish a response within 90 days of receiving a COSEWIC assessment. Once the Governor in Council receives that assessment, it has nine months to make a decision. But there is no explicit deadline for getting the assessment from the minister to the Governor in Council.
“It could just sit there forever because there’s no timeline for the step,” Yewchuk said.
Aquatic species stood out in the study. None of the 15 marine mammals or 49 marine fish assessed during the study period had been forwarded to the Governor in Council by the January 2025 cutoff. Ninety per cent of terrestrial mammals and 79 per cent of freshwater fish were still waiting.
Spawning sockeye salmon are seen making their way up the Adams River in Roderick Haig-Brown Provincial Park near Chase, B.C., in October 2011. Pacific salmon were among the aquatic species disproportionately affected by federal listing delays identified in the study. (Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press)
More than biodiversity
Andrea Reid, a citizen of the Nisga’a Nation and Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Fisheries Science at the University of British Columbia, said what is at stake goes beyond the loss of individual species.
“Because these fish are so deeply connected to who we are,” Reid said. “It’s not just food, it’s all systems of tradition and culture and language.”
The study identified 38 Pacific salmon populations delayed while the government continued collecting or analyzing information. Information collection was the most common explanation for delays examined by the researchers, followed by analysis. In 20 per cent of cases where the government provided an entry, no specific reason was given.
Andrea Reid, a citizen of the Nisga’a Nation and Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Fisheries Science at the University of British Columbia, says Indigenous consultation should be built into the species-listing process rather than treated as a cause of delay. (Talon Gillis)
Indigenous consultation was also cited in some cases, but Reid cautioned against treating consultation itself as an obstacle.
“It certainly does take time. That is a reality, but that should be part of the planned process,” she said.
Reid said listing is not always straightforward for Indigenous communities because restrictions can raise concerns about continued access to culturally important species.
“We need species to be adequately protected, but we also need cultural connection to be protected as well,” she said.
A beluga whale swims in Hudson Bay outside Churchill, Man., in August 2022. Several beluga populations were among the marine mammals still awaiting a federal listing decision as of January 2025, years after their latest COSEWIC assessments. (Olivier Morin/AFP/Getty Images)
Few answers for long waits
Thompson said vague or absent explanations made it impossible for the researchers to determine why many individual species were delayed.
“It certainly seems like there is, at the very least, a lack of transparency in what is happening,” he said.
Yewchuk went further, arguing that the gap allows governments to avoid publicly choosing between conservation and competing economic interests.
“It takes the pressure off of them to make hard calls about species conservation and allows them to just let the issue slide away,” he said.
Environment and Climate Change Canada acknowledged the gap at the centre of the study. “SARA does not include a statutory timeline for the minister to provide a recommendation to the Governor in Council,” the department said in a statement to CBC News.
It said 76 terrestrial species assessed since 2017 had missed the government’s recommended timeline as of Jan. 25, 2025, and that some cases require more time for public, industry and Indigenous input.
Fisheries and Oceans Canada said aquatic listings can be more complex. “For aquatic species, listing can trigger protections across all waters where the species occurs, because these species are under federal jurisdiction,” the department said in a statement. Since the study’s January 2025 cutoff, the Governor in Council has received assessments for 15 aquatic species, starting the nine-month clock for listing decisions. On Friday, the government proposed adding or reclassifying all 15 under SARA.
Thompson said the broader problem is the pace of the process.
“We need to make the system more efficient and get these species the protections they need, or at least get a decision more quickly.”
B.C. conservation groups say the federal government’s refusal to issue an emergency order to protect southern resident killer whales puts the species at greater risk of extinction. Several groups had asked for the order last year. But as Michelle Morton reports, Fisheries and Oceans Canada says “incremental measures will be pursued” instead.
