OTTAWA — Some of Canada’s leading environmental groups are pushing the federal government to change aspects of proposed legislation to speed up development of major projects before it’s tabled this fall. Environmental Defence has launched an ad campaign to draw attention to the potential fate of the Southern Resident Orcas. The group says the whales are at risk if Ottawa moves ahead with a bill changing how major projects are reviewed. The group says it’s concerned about Ottawa’s plan to establish “economic zones” for transportation corridors, telecommunications networks, and energy production and transmission. Those zones would allow the federal cabinet to decide which activities would be allowed in them, and give ministers the power to pre-approve projects. “We’ve heard from MPs that changes are being considered from what was drafted initially,” Julia Levin, an associate director at Environmental Defence, told The Canadian Press. “But the government has not said anything publicly around the direction and what that might look like, and specifically on the changes to species protections.” Ottawa released two discussion papers in May which also proposed, among other things, taking the responsibility for reviewing pipelines, transmission lines and offshore renewable energy projects away from the Impact Assessment Agency and handing it to the Canada Energy Regulator. The federal government has said it has been told by industry that the level of expertise on energy projects that lived at the Canada Energy Regulator couldn’t be found at the Impact Assessment Agency. Ottawa initially set a deadline of June 7 for feedback but extended it to July 22 following heavy criticism, primarily from environmental and Indigenous groups. They also pushed the timeline to table legislation to the fall sitting, which begins on Sept. 21. The government said last month it received more than 21,000 emails on the proposed changes. It said a summary report on the consultations would be finalized by the end of the summer. A spokesperson for the Prime Minister’s Office said Wednesday there was no update available on the status of the report. Ottawa is also proposing to exempt certain projects from laws designed to protect species at risk. The Marine Mammal Commission — an independent U.S. government agency established by Congress — estimated there were only 74 Southern Resident Orca whales left as of July 2025. The animal is protected in Canada under the Species At Risk Act. “Their habitat is the Salish Sea — the exact waters oil and LNG tankers must pass through,” reads an excerpt from a new website Environmental Defence launched Thursday. “Underwater noise from these ships drowns out the orcas’ ability to hunt, communicate, and navigate — pushing them toward extinction.” Separately, Ecojustice — which has dubbed the pending legislation the ‘orca extinction bill’ — began its own media campaign Wednesday after Ottawa began the process to designate the Roberts Bank Terminal 2 as a project of national interest last week. The government says the terminal would increase the Port of Vancouver’s container capacity by nearly 50 per cent, and help to double Canada’s exports to non-U.S. markets by 2035. Designation as a project of national interest under the Building Canada Act allows the government to skirt the Species At Risk Act to permit the project to proceed. Ottawa is also proposing to give cabinet ministers what it calls “limited” power to exempt projects from what’s known as the “jeopardy test” for species at risk. “But only if it’s in the public interest and if the proponent has made all reasonable efforts to avoid or reduce impacts on at-risk species,” says a federal discussion paper on the proposal. “In plain terms: the law is meant to stop projects from pushing endangered species closer to extinction,” Ecojustice said in a post on its website Tuesday. “The proposed changes could create a way for projects to get around that protection.” In June, when environmental groups were on Parliament Hill lobbying against the proposals, Prime Minister Mark Carney said the government was “absolutely not” tossing away environmental protections in its proposals. This report by Nick Murray, The Canadian Press, was first published Sept. 3, 2026.
