Canadians urged to speak up before Sept. 18 comment deadline on cutting corners for proposed West Coast Oil Pipeline.

VANCOUVER/UNCEDED xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (MUSQUEAM), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (SQUAMISH), AND səlilwətaɬ (TSLEIL-WAUTUTH) TERRITORIES — After nearly two decades of fighting to protect Southern Resident Killer Whales, Ecojustice is taking the fight to a critical new front. The Orca Extinction Bill could weaken one of the key legal safeguards protecting endangered species in Canada and put the future of Southern Residents and other wildlife at risk.

Today, we’re sending a simple message: our coast, our wildlife, and our environmental laws are worth more than a pipeline.

In early August,while many communities across the country were experiencing raging wildfires and smoke, the federal government quietly proposed designating the West Coast Oil Pipeline as a “project of national interest” (PONI) under the controversial Building Canada Act (Bill C-5).The proposed pipeline could carry up to one million barrels of crude oil a day from Alberta to a deep-water port near Delta, B.C., at Roberts Bank in the Fraser River Estuary. The government has opened a public comment period on the proposed designation, with a deadline of September 18, 2026.

Moreover,the government is also beginning the process of giving a PONI designation to the Roberts Bank Terminal 2 by announcing the proposal this past Friday.

A national interest designation would allow these projects to move through a fast-tracked review process.Ecojustice says Canadians must have a full chance to understand and debate the risks to the Fraser River Estuary,the Salish Sea,salmon, and endangered Southern Resident Killer Whales.

Ecojustice is also alarmed about the erosion of the rule of law by handing designated national interest projects a golden ticket that could exempt them from laws that Parliament has democratically enacted. A PONI designation does more than speed up approvals. It is an attempt to pre-approve the federal permits a project needs to proceed, including permits under SARA.

That undermines SARA’s “jeopardy clause”. The clause is meant to stop projects that would jeopardize an endangered species’ survival or recovery.

PONI designation could give projects a path around the very law meant to protect endangered species.

Meanwhile, the government is proposing to undermine SARA itself in the new Orca Extinction Bill this fall. They propose carving out a broader exemption to the jeopardy clause that could exempt more projects, more explicitly, from this critical protection against extinction.

That matters for Southern Resident Killer Whales, which Canada recognizes as critically endangered and facing urgent threats to their survival and recovery.

The whales already face threats to their survival from a lack of Chinook salmon, underwater noise, vessel traffic and pollution. Canada has introduced some stronger protections this year, including a 1,000-metre approach distance for Southern Resident Killer Whales.

“Canada cannot claim to care about endangered species with one hand while weakening the laws that protect them with the other,” said Margot Venton, nature program director at Ecojustice. “This is not about being against building Canada’s economy. It is about whether a project should be allowed to move ahead without a proper assessment of its risks and safeguards to address them.”

 

For Ecojustice, this is the next chapter in a fight that has lasted nearly two decades.

 

The message is national: if Canada’s endangered wildlife can be sacrificed by changing the rules for one project, no species is truly protected.

 

Canadians can help protect the Fraser River Estuary, the Salish Sea, and endangered Southern Resident Killer Whales by making a submission on the proposed national interest designation of the West Coast Oil Pipeline before September 18, 2026.