If an elephant is a victim of a crime in Canada, who is in charge of resolving it?

Pachyderm penal policy may sound like a novelty but it is actually part of an elephant-sized and oft-neglected issue that impacts Canadians – environmental crime, which includes Illegal fishing, prohibited emissions, illegal timber and mining activities, poaching and trafficking of protected or endangered species.

Around the world, this disrupts business competitiveness, destroys natural systems, steals tax revenues and threatens national security in all forms. It also undermines sustainable development, feeds social unrest and is often linked to smuggling, modern slavery, corruption and money laundering.

However, unlike many of our trading partners and competitors, such as all European Union members or China, Canada does not have a path toward a coherent national strategy or timeline to counter crimes that affect the environment. This puts us at a competitive disadvantage at a time when we need all our policy and economic levers in line and sequenced.

Five steps need to be taken: start treating environmental crime as serious crime, not something merely to be regulated; use the full force of the law – criminal, financial and environmental – to prosecute offenders; toughen domestic laws; ensure greater federal-provincial co-operation; and promote greater international action on the issue.

Greater co-operation needed

There is an old joke: When asked to write about an elephant, a Frenchman eloquently describes its amorous characteristics, a Brit speaks stately to the creature’s importance to imperial history, while a Canadian writes: “Elephant: a federal or provincial responsibility?”

Environmental crime is a policy orphan in Canada even though the World Bank says it is worth as much as $300 billion globally with $1-2 trillion in related costs to communities and ecosystem services worldwide. Federal and provincial environment ministers co-ordinate on biodiversity and pollution, but never on green crime despite its........

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