WCEL Submission to Parks Canada Regarding its Development of General Regulations under the Canada National Marine Conservation Areas Act

This submission outlines West Coast Environmental Law's feedback on Park Canada's development of national marine conservation area (NMCA) general regulations under the Canada National Marine Conservation Areas Act (CNMCA Act).

While NMCAs are a strong marine protection tool, there remain several gaps in NMCA law and policy, including lack of formal recognition of Indigenous law, lack of interim protection, and incomplete legal implementation of the federal Marine Protected Area (MPA) Protection Standard. In this submission, we focus our recommendations on fully implementing the MPA Protection Standard through the general regulations.