{"id":108613,"date":"2026-09-10T08:36:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T12:36:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/?p=108613"},"modified":"2026-09-10T08:36:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T12:36:17","slug":"feds-drop-plans-to-skirt-species-at-risk-act-for-major-projects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/10\/feds-drop-plans-to-skirt-species-at-risk-act-for-major-projects\/","title":{"rendered":"Feds drop plans to skirt Species At Risk Act for major projects"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Nick Murray The federal government is abandoning plans to exempt certain projects from laws designed to protect species at risk after an overwhelmingly negative response to the proposal during a summer of consultations. However environmental groups say Ottawa can still bypass the Species At Risk Act through other means. The government is planning to introduce legislation in the fall to speed up approvals for major projects, a key promise from Prime Minister Mark Carney. The government released two discussion papers in May which also proposed, among other things, to give cabinet ministers what it calls &#8220;limited&#8221; power to exempt projects from what&#8217;s known as the &#8220;jeopardy test&#8221; for species at risk. &#8220;But only if it\u2019s in the public interest and if the proponent has made all reasonable efforts to&#8230; <\/p>\n<div class=\"pmpro\">\n<div class=\"pmpro_card pmpro_content_message\">\n<div class=\"pmpro_card_content\">This content is for Yearly Subscription, Yearly Subscription &#8211; Corporate, Print Subscription Only, Canada Print and Online, and USA Print and Online members only.<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?action=register\">Register<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"pmpro_card_actions pmpro_font-medium\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Ftheturtleislandnews.com%2Findex.php%2F2026%2F09%2F10%2Ffeds-drop-plans-to-skirt-species-at-risk-act-for-major-projects%2F\">Log in here<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Nick Murray The federal government is abandoning plans to exempt certain projects from laws designed to protect species at risk after an overwhelmingly negative response to the proposal during a summer of consultations. However environmental groups say Ottawa can still bypass the Species At Risk Act through other means. The government is planning to introduce legislation in the fall to speed up approvals for major projects, a key promise from Prime Minister Mark Carney. The government released two discussion papers in May which also proposed, among other things, to give cabinet ministers what it calls &#8220;limited&#8221; power to exempt projects from what&#8217;s known as the &#8220;jeopardy test&#8221; for species at risk. &#8220;But only if it\u2019s in the public interest and if the proponent has made all reasonable efforts to... <\/p>\n<div class=\"pmpro\"><div class=\"pmpro_card pmpro_content_message\"><div class=\"pmpro_card_content\">This content is for Yearly Subscription, Yearly Subscription - Corporate, Print Subscription Only, Canada Print and Online, and USA Print and Online members only.<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?action=register\">Register<\/a><\/div><div class=\"pmpro_card_actions pmpro_font-medium\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Ftheturtleislandnews.com%2Findex.php%2F2026%2F09%2F10%2Ffeds-drop-plans-to-skirt-species-at-risk-act-for-major-projects%2F\">Log in here<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":101363,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-108613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","category-ticker","pmpro-level-required","pmpro-level-3","pmpro-level-2","pmpro-level-5","pmpro-level-4","pmpro-level-6","pmpro-level-7","pmpro-level-8","pmpro-no-access"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Feds drop plans to skirt Species At Risk Act for major projects - The Turtle Island News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/10\/feds-drop-plans-to-skirt-species-at-risk-act-for-major-projects\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Feds drop plans to skirt Species At Risk Act for major projects - The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Nick Murray The federal government is abandoning plans to exempt certain projects from laws designed to protect species at risk after an overwhelmingly negative response to the proposal during a summer of consultations. However environmental groups say Ottawa can still bypass the Species At Risk Act through other means. The government is planning to introduce legislation in the fall to speed up approvals for major projects, a key promise from Prime Minister Mark Carney. The government released two discussion papers in May which also proposed, among other things, to give cabinet ministers what it calls &#8220;limited&#8221; power to exempt projects from what&#8217;s known as the &#8220;jeopardy test&#8221; for species at risk. &#8220;But only if it\u2019s in the public interest and if the proponent has made all reasonable efforts to\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/10\/feds-drop-plans-to-skirt-species-at-risk-act-for-major-projects\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TurtleIslandNews\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-09-10T12:36:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/facebooklogo.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"725\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"483\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lynda Powless\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@newsattheturtle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@newsattheturtle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lynda Powless\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/09\\\/10\\\/feds-drop-plans-to-skirt-species-at-risk-act-for-major-projects\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/09\\\/10\\\/feds-drop-plans-to-skirt-species-at-risk-act-for-major-projects\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Lynda Powless\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7b188fd7503577895ef8b306988cd458\"},\"headline\":\"Feds drop plans to skirt Species At Risk Act for major projects\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-09-10T12:36:17+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/09\\\/10\\\/feds-drop-plans-to-skirt-species-at-risk-act-for-major-projects\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":562,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"National News\",\"ticker\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/09\\\/10\\\/feds-drop-plans-to-skirt-species-at-risk-act-for-major-projects\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/09\\\/10\\\/feds-drop-plans-to-skirt-species-at-risk-act-for-major-projects\\\/\",\"name\":\"Feds drop plans to skirt Species At Risk Act for major projects - 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