Canada’s Ocean Promise Sounds Big, But Is It Enough?

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Canada has a rare chance in becoming
a global ocean conservation leader,

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but we still have a lot of work
to do as a fellow Canadian myself.

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But there's been a new proposal
from Prime Minister Mark Carney, a

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$3.8 billion dollar nature strategy
that was proposed in part of the

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development of 2030 to get 30 by 30.

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So they wanna increase the amount of
protections by 2030 from land and water.

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We're gonna talk about that on this
episode of the How to Protect the

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Ocean podcast, 'cause this is where
you get your weekly ocean news updates.

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Monday to Friday, we talk all oceans.

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Sometimes we do an interview on Friday.

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We prep you for that
interview with solo episodes.

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Today, this week is all solo
episodes because it is Oceans Week.

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Oceans Day was on Monday, June 8th.

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Some people call this
Oceans Month in June.

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I mean, every day is Ocean Day when
you listen to the How to Protect

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the Ocean podcast, which is great.

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But we're gonna be talking this
week a lot about some positive

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news and some dedications and some
commitments from a lot of these

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countries and like Canada, like my own.

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So we're gonna talk a little bit
about that and why that is important.

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So look, here's the history in Canada
with marine protected areas over the

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last, like, decade, decade and a half.

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When the Trudeau administration came
in, Trudeau became prime minister in

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2015, we had less than one percent
protected of marine and land in

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Canada, especially on the marine side.

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And that was unacceptable because we
had already committed to 30 by 30, 30%

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of the marine realm protected by 2030.

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It was a part of the Convention of
Biological Diversity, and that was

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an important mark for us, and it
was an important mark as countries.

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When countries commit to these
types of international agreements,

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like the Convention of Biological
Diversity or the Paris Accord Climate

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Agreement, this is an important thing
because they have to commit to that.

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They have to actually
do the work to get that.

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If not, they get embarrassed when
they committed and it doesn't work.

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That can go against that politician, that
prime minister or president's voting when

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they say, "Okay, we said we were gonna
do something about it." And so that is

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something that's important to them, and
it's also just important from a pride

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perspective for the country in itself.

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And so for the Trudeau administration
that came in, Prime Minister Trudeau was

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saying, "Hey, we wanna increase it. We
are going to increase it before 2020 to

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15%." And that's what they actually did.

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In a matter of four years, they had
marine protected areas that were in

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development and in sort of negotiations
for quite a while that got protected.

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There was an expansion on the
deep sea hydrothermal vents

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system along the West Coast.

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Many of the protected areas that
were put in the Arctic, and there's

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still some that have been put in.

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And now there are more that are proposed.

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In fact, Ottawa will fund up to 14 new
marine protected areas and conserved

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areas and at least 10 new national
parks and freshwater national marine

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conservation areas, and it will also
fund up to 10 new national marine

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conservation areas and 15 national urban
parks with a $3.8 billion nature strategy.

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And this is all supposed to
be in development by 2030.

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This is great news because the news that
has been coming out of this administration

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with Prime Minister Carney was the
fact that, hey, we have some trouble

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with trade with our neighbors down
south because of a particular person.

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So we are going to develop and divest some
of our investments into other countries.

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And so that means we're
gonna build pipelines.

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That means we're going to build
trade agreements and things like that.

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Well, when you build pipelines or you
build any kind of infrastructure 'cause

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you're trying to do new trade, because
of the speed of that development that

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has to happen, a lot of the times the
environmental regulations get rolled back.

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And that's been happening a lot with
pipelines, with data centers, with

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mining, and that was disappointing to see,
especially from a liberal government that

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just not long ago, but a year and a half
ago, was very much in the point of like,

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"Hey, we wanna reach net zero by 2050.

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We are protecting areas.

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We are trying to curb and
tax carbon," which I know not

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popular, but that's what it was.

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So people were starting to get antsy about
that, and so the new government came in.

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Of course, President Trump got
in as well, or just before that.

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Our government was formed with
Prime Minister Carney, who's got a

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lot of international and economic
experience, and he has taken the

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country in a different route.

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And it sometimes it's good, and
sometimes it's not so good, especially

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when it comes to the environment.

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So I was very surprised to see this.

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It's still a minimal in my opinion, a
small contribution in terms of money,

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$3.8 billion, but we haven't really
seen a lot of that money before if it was

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promised, and we haven't seen the action.

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So this is the fact that they're
actually putting numbers on the

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number of marine protected areas and
conserved areas and 10 national new

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parks and all this kind of stuff.

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And there are different designations
for marine protected areas and marine

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conservation areas and national
marine conservation areas and urban

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parks and all this kind of stuff.

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So it all ranges in the types of
protections that it could have

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and who is going to protect that.

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When a marine protected area in Canada
gets designated, it's done by the

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Department of Fisheries and Oceans,
DFO, and/or Fisheries and Oceans Canada,

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as it's now called, but I'll refer
to it as DFO throughout this episode.

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That's significant.

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That means nothing can be extracted from
those areas and other conservation areas

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have different regulations around that.

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But this is a pretty big commitment
by Canada, especially with everything

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that's going on, which I mentioned
that everything's going on.

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Canada is home to 20% of the world's
total freshwater lakes, 37% of the

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lakes in the world, and 25% of the
wetlands, and 24% of the boreal forest.

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And it has the world's largest coastline,
so it touches on the Atlantic, the

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Arctic, and the Pacific Oceans.

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It is 620,000 square miles of
land and up to 700,000 square

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kilometers of oceans that's gonna be
protected over the next four years.

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So last episode, I talked about how
we are at 10% of global protection,

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and that's gonna increase, and I
predict that's gonna be increased.

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This story here kind of proves that, where
you're seeing a lot more commitments from

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countries that are gonna get to that 30%.

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Canada's just a little over halfway
there in terms of its commitments

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from a marine perspective.

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I'm not sure from a land perspective.

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But that's a good thing.

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Especially with everything that's
going on, these protections

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need to stay in place and be
enforced, obviously, 'cause a lot of

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development that's going on in Canada.

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But a lot of our coastlines are
unreachable or smaller coastlines or

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smaller cities that are around those
coastlines, so that's a benefit to us

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because there's not as much pressure.

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But also some companies like to get
away with some stuff when nobody can

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see them, so you gotta be careful.

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And so you still have to have
policies and regulations in place,

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and you have to hold them to that.

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Two episodes ago we talked about
the data centers, which is a big

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push around the world, and we're
seeing people stand up to those.

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People have to watch out because
companies will continue to just pound

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and pound and countries will do that,
governments will do that, pound and

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pound until they get what they want.

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That's happening in some countries
like the US, where we're seeing oil

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and gas development being opened up,
or sanctuaries being opened up to

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fishing, oil and gas development, some
of the regulations being pulled back.

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They'll go to the courts, organizations
will bring in lawsuits against them to

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say, "Hey, you can't do that." That will
hold up in court, and now something else

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happens, and then something else happens.

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Now there's deep sea mining, and then
there's another proposal up in Alaska

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for oil and gas, and now it's over
on the East Coast for oil and gas.

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And it's just constant, and it's done
on purpose to kinda spread us all thin

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in terms of the people, the advocates,
and the activists who are speaking

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out against these types of actions.

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And so you always have to be careful.

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That's why it's important to establish
and be proactive and establish

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these marine protected areas to
make sure that they stay in place.

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And it's something that needs
to be done on a regular basis.

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And I'm glad that we're seeing this
push because, you know, in Canada

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we got some very unique ecosystems.

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Like I mentioned before, we have
Atlantic, Arctic, and Pacific Oceans,

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kelp forests, arctic waters, cold
water corals, estuaries, seagrass

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meadows, salt marshes, mud flats.

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We got all these wonderful habitats
that are the home of these amazing

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species and a diverse set of
species, which is a big thing.

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We also have a big push on, not
only including, but having

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indigenous protected areas.

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So they're, leading this charge
in their own areas, right?

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In their own treaty territories.

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And I think that's a
really important aspect.

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That's something that's gonna
be really great in the future.

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We're building a university up
in Nunavut, up in the Arctic,

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which is gonna be its first ever.

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I think that's gonna be really important
having a university dedicated to

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there, 'cause I know an environmental
program will be great up there, and

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it'll teach a lot of the indigenous
knowledge systems that we've had

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in the past that haven't been used
in science-based decision-making,

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which I think we're seeing more and
more happening, where indigenous

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decision-making is being put in place
or in conglomerate with or collaboration

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with, which I think is great to see.

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But we also have a lot of challenges.

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We have pipelines going in, oil and gas.

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Offshore oil and gas is huge.

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Shipping has become bigger even,
especially with the melting in the Arctic.

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So the Northwest Passage is,
they're seeing a lot more

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pressure than it ever has before.

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We have fisheries conflicts.

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We have fisheries ministers that are
allowing for cod fishing when the

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cod stocks are not doing well, and
they're giving in to pressure on this.

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And then of course, we have climate
change, which is making everything worse.

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So there's a lot of challenge in that,
and protected areas are helping with that.

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It's taking away some of those cumulative
effects where fishing can't happen

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and where destruction of habitat can't
happen within that area, where maybe

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shipping lanes have to be diverted
around those protected areas, so it

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doesn't harm any animal or any ecosystem.

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These are all things that are really
important when we look at in the future.

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So look.

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Canada has everything it needs to lead.

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It hasn't signed on and ratified
the high seas, which I hope it will.

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But within its national boundaries,
within its economic zone, exclusive

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economic zone, the 200-nautical-mile EEZ,
I think it's doing a really good thing.

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And I think from a Canadian standpoint,
with the longest coastline in the

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world and with the maritime industry
that we have, I think we have to

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ask ourselves, like, what type of
ocean legacy do we want to leave?

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And I think this is a step
in the right direction.

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And I know this government that we
have now has not done a great job at

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protecting the environment steadily, but
having this will help, especially with

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all the development that's going on.

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But I would love to hear from you.

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If you're Canadian, non-Canadian,
if you're having similar things

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happening in your country, I
would love to hear from you.

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You can hit me up or join
our community on Patreon.

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That's speakupforblue.com/patreon.

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If you wanna get access to the podcast
and you just want the interviews

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that we do every week, or you just
want the solo episodes, I'm gonna

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try and do two feeds in that.

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And those will be free.

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You don't have to join the community,
which is gonna be a paid community.

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But, you know, the idea is let's
get together once a month, let's

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have a chat, and let's talk some
fun things in this community.

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So, that's it for today's episode.

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I wanna thank you so much for
joining me on this episode of the

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How to Protect the Ocean podcast.

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I'm your host, Andrew Lewin.

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If you wanna get ahold of me, you can
hit me up on my socials in the show

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notes, or you can also join the community.

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Have a great day.

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We'll talk to you next time,
and happy conservation.