I strongly oppose this bill…

I strongly oppose this bill for the following reasons:

- It is problematic to give the government the discretion to add or remove species from the species protection list as they can oppose the listing of species that could potentially halt projects that are of interest to lobbying groups that support the government in power.
- permit applications will no longer be required for most projects that impact at risk species which means biologists will not have an opportunity to review what is proposed and impacts to species will occur. Instead, developer will simply need to register their project online and then continue their project immediately after registering - developers are not capable of understanding the impacts to species or their habitat therefore there is an issue of accountability with this registration-first approach.
- removing the concept of 'harass' from species protections - harassment can lead to poor health of individuals which may affect their ability to reproduce (WE SEE THIS IN PEOPLE). Therefore, IT SHOULD NOT BE REMOVED as a type of impact to species.
- removing the requirement for recovery plans and documents for species listed as threatened or endangered - this undermines the ability to create and inform of creative restoration/repopulation initiatives and limits the government's ability, or overseeing branch's, ability to implement successful recovery projects.
- the Species at Risk Program Advisory Committee will be disbanded and new committees will be formed at the discretion of the government - this committee has been giving the government advice on the best approaches to the implementation of the Endangered Species Act. Dissolving this committee without proposing a specific committee to advise on the implementation of the so-call Species Conservation Act will lead to weak policy implementation that will ultimately fail to achieve the intended goal of the proposed new Act.

Overall, these changes weaken protection measure to our most vulnerable species and will lead to a failure in environmental conservation.

Ontario will no longer be a leader in species conservation; instead, Ontario's conservation efforts will be a joke just like those of our southern neighbours who have proposed similar policy roll backs to the American Endangered Species Act.

To be VERY CLEAR - I OPPOSE THIS CHANGE. MY FRIENDS OPPOSE THIS CHANGE. MY FAMILY OPPOSES THIS CHANGE. AND MY COMMUNITY OPPOSES THIS CHANGE.