History

The Species at Risk Act (SARA), was introduced and deemed to have passed all stages as Bill C-5, in the House of Commons on October 9th, 2002. This bill was identical to an earlier bill with the same title and number that had been tabled at the beginning of the 1st session of the 37th Parliament in February 2001, but that died on the Order Paper when Parliament was prorogued in September 2002.

Two other bills preceded Bill C-5: Bill C-33, the Species at Risk Act, which was tabled in April 2000 and died on the Order Paper when the general election was called in 2000; and Bill C-65, the Canada Endangered Species Protection Act (CESPA), which was tabled in October 1996 and died on the Order Paper when the general election was called in 1997.

Bill C-5 was virtually identical to the earlier Bill C-5 tabled in the previous session. It is also very similar to its predecessor, Bill C-33, although a number of minor changes and corrections were added. Those two previous bills were consistent with Bill C-65 (CESPA), but with a number of significant differences. The bills varied in their scope and in their approach to the exercise of federal jurisdiction in the area of species protection.