Batch 19 listing questionnaire (2022)

Your input on the proposed changes to the federal list of species at risk

The Minister of Environment and Climate Change Canada (the Minister) is seeking input to inform the decision, which is made by Cabinet, on whether to add or reclassify 18 species on the federal List of Wildlife Species at Risk (the SARA List). This is Schedule 1 of the Species at Risk Act (SARA). Your comments will help the Minister understand what the changes to the List would mean to you.

Please refer to table 1 entitled “The List of Species Eligible for an Amendment to Schedule 1” for details on the proposed change for each species.

General prohibitions: what they are and when and where they apply

When a species is added to the SARA List, SARA’s prohibitions protecting individuals and their residences come into place. Residences mean places such as nests and dens. SARA’s prohibitions are for species that are added to the List as endangered, threatened or extirpated; but they do not apply when species are on the List as Special concern.

In the provinces, this means that if a species were on the List at one of those three statuses, where they are on federal lands and on First Nation Reserves, it would be prohibited to kill, harm or harass it. (‘Federal lands’ includes lands that are administered by the federal government.) It would also be prohibited to possess, collect, buy, sell or trade it. For their residences (such as a den or a nest), it would be prohibited that they be damaged or destroyed. In the territories, it would be the same, except that SARA prohibits these things only in federally protected areas.

However, in the case of migratory birds, which are already protected by the Migratory Birds Convention Act (MBCA), these prohibitions apply everywhere in Canada. If a bird that is already protected by the MBCA is also added to the SARA List as Special Concern, the MBCA prohibitions will still apply.

Critical habitat of endangered, threatened or extirpated species: what is it and when and how it applies

When species are listed at one of these three statuses, SARA requires ECCC to develop a recovery strategy and an action plan. These must identify the species’ critical habitat; that is to say the habitat a species needs to survive or recover. Once that is done, steps for its protection are considered. If it is on federal land, SARA requires that the Minister put a critical habitat protection order into place. This is to prohibit it from being damaged or destroyed. If the land is a First Nation Reserve, officials from Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) must first consult that First Nation band before any critical habitat protection is put into place. The only exception would be if the situation were an emergency. So, we will consult you later about critical habitat, once we know for sure how it is to be defined under SARA. But, if you want to share information about your thoughts on critical habitat now, you will improve what we know about the long-term effects of these proposed changes, before the species is added to the SARA List at one of these statuses.

What happens for species that are Special concern

SARA does not have critical habitat for species that are on the List as special concern. If a species is on the List as Special concern, instead of a recovery strategy and action plan, ECCC must develop a management plan. This is to stop the species’ situation from becoming worse. It is easier to improve the situation of a special concern species, than it is once that same species becomes threatened or worse.

Reclassifying species

When the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) has decided that the status of a listed species has changed, the species may be reclassified on the SARA List. COSEWIC decides this with the newest information, which includes the available Indigenous Knowledge. These changes may mean a change to whether SARA will prohibit doing things that affect the species. If the status of a species on the SARA list could change from either threatened or endangered to special concern, SARA general prohibitions would no longer apply, and any critical habitat would no longer be protected. If it could change from special concern to threatened or endangered, the general prohibitions would be added to the protections for the species. There would also be future decisions about the critical habitat. Therefore, before this same change is made to the SARA List, consultations will take place, just as they would if the species were being added or removed from the List. Changes to the species status on the SARA list that are between Threatened and Endangered do not change how the species is protected.

Why we want to hear from you

Since adding or reclassifying a species on the SARA List may affect the way you or your community, nation, business or organization interact with the species, ECCC wants to know what these changes could mean to you. It could be that you need to know that the species will be there for future generations, but you also may have concerns about your future activities. The kind of activities could include harvesting the species or affecting its residence, for instance if you will be cutting trees that the species may use for a nest. If we know how these changes would affect you or your community, then we can let the Minister know what the impacts could be; and, we can do so before he recommends any of these changes to the SARA List.

For further information on SARA, please consult: Species at Risk Act S.C. 2002, c. 29.

Providing comments

We will closely consider all the comments that we receive about these terrestrial species by the following deadlines. To be sure your comments can be considered, if they are about species in normal consultations (4 months), please send them to us by May 10, 2022. If they are about the species in extended consultations (9 months), please send them to us by October 10, 2022.

Most species are in normal consultations. To know which consultation paths these species are following, please visit the Species at Risk (SAR) Public Registry website at:

The Minister of the Environment's Response to Species at Risk Assessments submitted by COSEWIC on October 12, 2021.

For more details on submitting comments, see the section “Comments solicited on the proposed amendment of Schedule 1” in the document entitled “Consultation on Amending the List of Species under the Species at Risk Act: Terrestrial Species”.
You can provide your input and comments about the proposed changes to the federal list of species at risk in the way that works best for you. You can provide input by:

Mail: Director General, Wildlife Management,
Canadian Wildlife Service,
Environment and Climate Change Canada,
Gatineau
QC K1A 0H3

Email: sararegistry@ec.gc.ca

For more information on SARA, please visit the Species at Risk Public Registry.

For information on the consultation process for aquatic species, visit the Fisheries and Oceans Canada website.

Questions to guide your comments

The following questions are intended to guide you in providing comments on the proposed changes to the federal List of Wildlife Species at Risk. The questions are not limiting, and any other comments you may have are welcome; please also feel free to skip questions that do not apply or you do not wish to answer.

Respondent information

1. Are you:

1. responding as an individual, or
2. responding on behalf of a community, nation, business or organization (please specify)?

Information about the species

For the following questions, you are welcome to limit your responses to only those species that are of particular interest to you or your community/nation/business/organization, or the species that have a high likelihood of occurring on your property.

For the following questions, please refer to the maps in the species summary document.

2. Do any of these species occur on a federally administered property or First Nation Reserve that has not been identified in the maps? If yes, please detail.

3. What do these species and their habitats mean to you or the group for which you are responding? Could you describe your or your group’s relationship with these species (e.g., cultural, spiritual, ceremonial, practicing rights, health, wellbeing, livelihood)?

4. How might your relationship with the species be affected if the proposed changes to the SARA list go through? This could be if it were added to the SARA list. What if it is being reclassified, and as a result SARA’s prohibitions or critical habitat protections were to be removed? What if they are being added? Or, if the possible change is that the species’ status would go from Special Concern or Not at Risk, what if SARA would no longer apply at all for these species?

5. For species to recover, many different people need to collaborate. The addition or reclassification of a species to the SARA List is a first step. Could the recovery of the species support your livelihood, or well-being? Could it improve you being able to practice Aboriginal rights?

Activities on properties where species may occur

We are asking you in particular about the four species listed below. This is because we believe that there is a high likelihood that they may be on federally administered properties or First Nation Reserves. This would mean that a change to the SARA List for these species could result in their being protected on these properties. If it is a bird that is already protected under the Migratory Birds Convention Act (MBCA), then the change might mean that there would be additional habitat protection; but, this could only be done on reserve land after more consultations. These questions also apply to any species that you identified at question 2 and that is proposed to be listed as threatened, endangered or extirpated.

• Davis’s Shieldback
• Short-eared Owl
• Lesser Yellowlegs (somewhat protected already under the MBCA)
• Leach’s Storm Petrel – Atlantic population (somewhat protected already under the MBCA)

Please refer to the maps in the species summary documents, as well as any information that you provided in question 2.

6. Do you or your group use (including exercise rights) on any of the federally administered properties or First Nation Reserves that overlap with where the species is found? If yes, and you wish to answer the following questions, it would help us if you could let us know which property or properties are involved.

1. how do you use this property? Also, if you are planning to use it in the future, can you let us know? We would like to know how you use this property. For instance, if you are practicing or would you be practicing Indigenous rights, agriculture, research, military exercises, residential, recreation and tourism, economic development, can you describe them for us?
2. could any of these current or planned uses or activities be affected by the proposed changes to the federal list of species at risk? If yes, please describe how.

Additional information on implications of the proposed changes

7. Do you have any other information or concerns about the proposed changes to the SARA List that the Minister should consider?

Additional information about small business respondents

If you are responding on behalf of a small or medium business enterprise (SME), please provide the following information to help ECCC conduct the required Small Business Lens analysis that would accompany any future amendment recommendation. Feel free to skip questions that do not apply or you do not wish to answer.

8. Do you represent an SME that operates in Canada?

9. Does your SME engage in commercial activities related to the supply of services or property (which includes goods)?

10. Does your SME engage in activities for a public purpose (e.g., social welfare or civic improvement), such as a provincial or municipal government, school, college/university, hospital or charity?

11. Is your SME owned by a person who is First Nation, Inuit or Métis community, business, nation or organization?

12. How many employees does the SME you represent employ?

1. 0–99
2. 100 or more
3. do not wish to respond/not sure/don’t know

13. What was the annual gross revenue of your SME in the last year?

1. less than $30,000
2. between $30,000 and $5 million
3. more than $5 million
4. do not wish to respond/not sure/don’t know