Nature is our home
not an economic zone

Nature feeds us, shelters us, waters us—but is increasingly being framed as an obstacle to economic development. Instead of protecting the nature that cares for us, the federal government is bulldozing ahead with a series of environmental rollbacks that risk turning the places we call home into corporate playgrounds.

We must tell the government loud and clear: nature is our home, not an economic zone.

Despite promising to protect nature, the federal government completely reversed course by putting forward a proposal to steamroll ahead with major extractive projects through the weakening of environmental protections. Specifically, the proposal, named ‘Getting Major Projects Built’, includes:

· Gutting the federal environmental impact assessment for major energy projects   
· Diluting the Species at Risk Act for certain extractive projects, putting threatened species (like the Southern Resident orca) in jeopardy
· Creating “Federal Economic Zones’ for Major Projects, where development would be pre-approved and environmental review and protections would be significantly reduced
· Weakening Fish and Fish Habitat Protections by making them more “flexible” based on promises of unreliable and unproven "offsetting" measures
· Authorizing ministers to weaken environmental conditions if compliance increases project costs, and allowing construction activities to begin before impact assessments are complete

The federal government is framing the removal of nature protections as being in the “public interest”. In reality, destroying the nature that sustains us is counter to the public good. Not only are we in the middle of a biodiversity crisis—with over 2000 species across Canada at some level of risk of extinction—but the overwhelming majority of people across Canada also view nature as central to their national identity and believe that nature protections should be increased.

The ‘Getting Major Projects Built’ proposal is the latest iteration of the federal government’s ‘Build, Baby, Build’ strategy where development is accelerated at seemingly any cost. This acceleration is also feeding the expansion of energy-hungry AI systems, data centres, and defence-related technologies. But people living through rising costs and growing insecurity are not asking for more destruction: they’re asking for a livable future.

Thanks to public pushback, the government tabled the proposal until the Fall, but they are still expected to bulldoze ahead with legislation full of environmental rollbacks, which means right now is the perfect time to keep the momentum going.

Nature is not a site to exploit and profit from, it is our home—a source of health, wellbeing, and a place of belonging for all.

Tell the federal government that you oppose the proposal to reduce nature to economic zones.