News Releases

One year since CPAWS called on the federal government to create 12 new marine protected areas by December 2012, the good news is that it is making progress in designating many of them as legal entities. However, CPAWS is concerned that the conservation measures the government is proposing once these areas are designated for protection may be too weak to be effective.

CPAWS Wildlands League, a leading Ontario conservation group, condemns the actions by the provincial government and US-based Cliffs Natural Resources to strike a back room deal in the "Ring of Fire" area that potentially sacrifices ecosystems by deciding on a 350km road based on the needs of a single mining company.

CPAWS is concerned that deep staffing reductions at Parks Canada as a result of federal budget cuts starting this year could significantly impair the agency’s ability to carry out its mission.

The Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) is gravely concerned that yesterday’s Budget Implementation bill introduced by the federal government in the House of Commons is set to seriously weaken Canada’s environmental laws in order to fast track industrial development.

Ottawa--As Canada’s only national organization solely dedicated to protecting our country’s public land and water, the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) will be carefully assessing today’s announcement today by Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver about changes to the process for reviewing environmental projects. “We believe Canada must have strong environmental laws to protect our country’s species and healthy, fully functioning ecosystems. Environmental laws should be based on application of precautionary principles informed by conservation science, in order to maximize species’ chances of survival,” says CPAWS National Executive Director Éric Hébert-Daly.

TORONTO – CPAWS Wildlands League, a leading conservation group in the province, welcomes the decision by the province to place 23,000 square kilometres off limits to mining. It is a direct result of the long principled stand by Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI) to protect its lands and waters in the Boreal Forest so that their children and grandchildren can continue to pursue their usual vocations of hunting, trapping, and fishing. The land withdrawal, one of the largest single area withdrawals in the history of Ontario, covers an area more than 3 times the size of Ontario’s Greenbelt.

MEDIA ADVISORY: Caribou mascot “Bou” to arrive on Parliament Hill with 32,000 names in support of woodland caribou protection WHEN: February 16th, 2012 11:15 AM: Photo Op on Parliament Hill in front of the Peace Tower. 11:45 AM: Press Conference - Charles Lynch Gallery, Room 130S, House of Commons

Tuesday, February 14 WHITEHORSE, YUKON - CPAWS Yukon and the Yukon Conservation Society condemn the Yukon government's attempt to hijack the land-use planning process and open the Peel Watershed to industrial development. Today, at a meeting with its First Nation partners in the Peel planning process, government imposed eight new principles designed to allow roads, uranium, coal and hard rock mining, and oil and gas development in one of the last intact boreal ecosystems on the continent. These arbitrary pro-development principles, produced behind closed doors by Yukon government, replace principles developed co-operatively by government and First Nations representatives in 2008.

Ottawa -- The Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) is disappointed that Parks Canada has approved a proposal by Brewster Canada Ltd. for the controversial Glacier Discovery Walk in Jasper National Park. The development will result in a 300-metre walkway and massive glass-floored "skywalk” along the Icefields Parkway in Jasper National Park, replacing a highway pullout where park visitors can currently park their vehicles and enjoy the free view. Since the project was first made public, CPAWS has opposed this development proposal, as have many other organizations and individuals from across Canada. “We’re opposed to this massive development because the long-term impact it may have on wildlife in the area, including mountain goats and other sensitive species, is simply not known,” says Éric Hébert-Daly, CPAWS National Executive Director, based in Ottawa.