Judge Brothers has found that the Minister (in reality, the Department of Lands and Forestry) has not fulfilled many of his legal obligations under the Endangered Species Act. Specifically, with respect to the 6 representative species chosen for the case:
– recovery plans have not been completed on time,
– recovery teams have not been appointed on time,
– recovery plans must now identify areas that can be considered for designation as core habitat,- recovery plans must be reviewed on time, and
– if the Minister is to rely on a federal recovery strategy in lieu of creating a provincial recovery plan, the federal strategy must be formally adopted by the Minister within the timeline stipulated in the Act.
The judgement can be read at https://decisions.courts.ns.ca/nsc/nssc/en/item/479814/index.do