Whale population shows signs of recovery... just in time for a new port development

The North Pacific population of humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) has had its status under Canada's Species At Risk Act (SARA) downgraded from "threatened" to “species of special concern” . Sounds good doesn't it!  Surely this means that the population is recovering from historical declines, and that the things that threaten it's persistence are now under control.

....

Or maybe it means that now the whale's status now in not quite as bad shape as before, it's probably ok to stick a port to serve the $7.9-billion Northern Gateway pipeline off Kitimat in northern British Columbia, to ship diluted bitumen from.

I wonder which it could be.  Read the story as reported in the Vancouver Sun.