I strongly oppose the…

I strongly oppose the proposed changes to the Endangered Species Act, 2007 and the creation of the Species Conservation Act, 2025 as outlined.

The proposed "registration-first" approach will substantially weaken protections for species at risk by allowing harmful activities to proceed immediately without prior environmental review. This undermines the very purpose of species protection, which is to prevent harm before it happens, not after it’s too late to undo the damage. Shifting to voluntary, post-damage enforcement is ineffective, especially when endangered species' survival often depends on avoiding harm entirely.

Granting the government discretion to remove species from the protected list, regardless of independent scientific assessment, introduces political and economic bias into what must remain a science-based process. This change fundamentally threatens the credibility and objectivity of species protection in Ontario.

Redefining "habitat" to only core areas like nests and dens ignores the critical importance of surrounding ecosystems that species rely on for feeding, migration, and survival. This narrowed definition will cause irreversible habitat loss, fragmentation, and species decline — exactly what the ESA was designed to prevent.

The removal of mandatory recovery strategies and government response statements is a major step backward. Conservation requires planned, science-based, long-term actions, not vague or discretionary "guidance documents."

Protecting Ontario’s biodiversity is not a barrier to economic growth; it is a foundation for a healthy environment, economy, and society. These changes prioritize short-term profits for developers over long-term ecological and economic resilience. I urge the government to abandon this reckless proposal and instead strengthen, not dismantle, Ontario’s species protections.