Special concern status is the least critical level of Canada’s Species at Risk list. It is an omnibus category for species that are not threatened or endangered, but could become so if the factors threatening them are not reversed.

If approved as a species of concern, a plan would be devised within three years to prevent polar bears from becoming endangered or threatened.

The legislative move comes almost three years after the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife (COSEWIC) recommended the bear needed special attention.

Canada is home to 60 per cent of the world’s polar bears and changes in sea ice conditions are wreaking havoc with bear populations.

Aboriginal groups in the North strongly oppose inclusion of the bear under the law, saying populations are growing.