STONEWALL, MANITOBA — (Marketwire) — 04/24/12 — Today the Harper government announced that it commits to the responsible protection and conservation of Canada–s fisheries. Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC) supports this direction and understands that laws and regulations must be updated at interval to ensure that they address evolving social, economic and environmental systems, as well as support efficient process to achieve desired outcomes.
DUC supports the federal government in updating the federal fisheries legislation and taking a targeted approach that would support the conservation and sustainable use of our fisheries resources. Also, the proposed changes will make it easier for the fisheries legislation and regulations to be enforced.
Wetlands are critical habitat to many of our fish and wildlife resources and DUC–s expectation of the Fisheries Act is that it will continue to directly address habitat protection, mitigation and restoration as a critical part of supporting healthy fish stocks in Canada.
“Ducks Unlimited Canada believes that our environmental regulatory framework should be outcomes based,” said Jamie Fortune, acting CEO for DUC. “To ensure that we are achieving the desired outcomes, it is critical that significant capacity is allocated to regulatory agencies for habitat and species inventories, monitoring and evaluation.”
DUC believes that all federal agencies should be adequately resourced to fulfill their mandate and their regulatory obligations to Canadians. DUC feels that laws and regulations should promote environmentally sustainable land-use and support both statutory decision makers and project proponents in making the best choices. This means identifying areas and values that must not be impacted, directing impacts away from sensitive areas or values, minimizing impacts overall and necessitating compensation by proponents for unavoidable impacts.
DUC looks forward to more details on the proposed changes to the Fisheries Act and are pleased to offer our support for this strategic direction in principle.
Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC) is the leader in wetland conservation. A registered charity, DUC partners with government, industry, non-profit organizations and landowners to conserve wetlands that are critical to waterfowl, wildlife and the environment. Learn more at .
Contacts:
Ducks Unlimited Canada
Gillian Potvin
National Manager, Media Strategy
(204) 467-3202 or Cell: (204) 792-3678