Liberal Cabinet Ministers are expected to table legislation with major environmental consequences after a summer of consultation on the proposed “Extinction Papers”
Unceded Algonquin Territory — Ottawa, ON | September 17, 2026
Next week, Parliament will resume after a summer that has seen wildfires, a tariff war with the United States and environmental and economic unease across Canada. The choices that Canadian parliamentarians make in their first few days back will be a significant test of character for them and for the country they will help to create.
At the start of the summer, the federal government published its Getting Major Projects Built in Canada paper, with proposals to enable Ministers “to adjust [i.e., lower] environmental conditions for projects of national interest,” to grant favoured corporations the ability to bypass the environmental reviews that apply to everyone else and to set aside the lawful protection of species threatened with extinction.
These proposals, dubbed the “Extinction Papers,” shocked the conscience of Canadians everywhere, and mobilized international opposition in some of Canada’s most important trading partners in Europe and Asia.
In response, Nature Canada convened 20 ENGOs, whose conversations are summarized in our report about creating a better path forward for Canada in A Canada Worth Building Puts Nature up Front.
Meanwhile, over 26,000 Canadians – including not only expert knowledge-holders but also business owners, farmers, schoolteachers and more – wrote to, telephoned and met with their MPs to call on the government to do the right thing, and draw back from the precipice.
In its subsequent What We Heard report, the government faced up to the scale of the democratic opposition to its initial proposals by acknowledging that “Canadians have made it clear that they want a regulatory system that is more efficient and predictable, without compromising environmental protections or Indigenous rights.”
“We are relieved that the Major Projects Office has signaled a willingness to reconsider its plans to neutralize the laws that protect species at risk,” says Akaash Maharaj, Policy Director at Nature Canada. “But we still do not know what they are actually planning this autumn. Extinction is neither a necessary nor an acceptable cost for development. It is outlandish that one week, the federal government announced billions of dollars in public funds to protect nature, and the next week, it announced plans to let private corporations lay waste to nature. That policy incoherence undermines everything the government has said it is trying to accomplish.”
There remains much peril in the approach the government intends to take to Parliament in the coming weeks. Nature Canada calls on MPs to heed the voice of their constituents and speak up for the reality that the only way to build an economy that delivers prosperity today and tomorrow is to build it on a foundation of environmental responsibility.
Backgrounder:
Nature Canada has completed its analysis of the ways in which the proposed legislation could undermine the $3.8 Billion investment the federal government has made to nature and conservation. The report, entitled A Canada Worth Building Puts Nature up Front goes through each of the three pillars that the government outlined and the risks and solutions that the environmental community supports to build Canada and protect nature. It is available in both English and French
Timeline:
- On March 31st, 2026, the federal government committed $3.8 Billion to nature and conservation in A Force of Nature.
- On May 8th, 2026, the federal government released two discussion papers from the Major Projects Office and Transport Canada that framed environmental regulations as the ‘red tape’ that was impeding development. Despite the fact that the evidence suggests that this is not the case.
- After pushback, the federal government extended the comment period on the discussion papers to July and delayed the introduction of legislation to the fall.
- On September 9, 2026, the government released several ‘What We Heard Reports’ that summarized the concerns of Canadians that environmental protections were being undermined.
- Also on September 9, 2026, the federal government changed regulations to the Impact Assessment Act about approvals for projects. Ostensibly, this was to remove duplication of oversight, but in practicality it is a removal of the requirement for comprehensive environmental reviews for certain projects.
- From Sept 14-15, Prime Minister Carney attended the Canada Investment Summit in Toronto in which the message was clearly that Canada is not only open for investment, it is also for sale.
By the numbers:
- The economic value of ecosystem services in Canada is estimated to be at least $3.6 trillion per year (Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services [IPBES], 2018).
- This includes not just sectors like agriculture, forestry, and fisheries, but also services that Canadians enjoy for free like clean air (filtered by vast Boreal forests), the freshwater flowing in our lakes and rivers and pollinators fertilizing the crops we eat.
- The federal government’s investment of $3.8 Billion over 5 years could represent an investment of only 02% per year in our ecosystem services.
- That’s the equivalent of having a business that makes $36,000 a year and choosing to invest $7.20 a year into improving it!
About Nature Canada: A charity since 1939, Nature Canada has been the voice for nature. Our mission is to cultivate and strengthen the connections and conditions needed for species and habitats to flourish. Our vision is a Canada where nature is restored, thriving and an integral part of everyday life, rooted in all the decisions that shape our shared future.
For more information contact:
Scott Mullenix, Director of Communications
media@naturecanada.ca | Call / Text: 613-366-4776
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Photo courtesy of Presidential Communications Office, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
