The Endangered Species Act…

The Endangered Species Act has protected wildlife across the province since the 1970s. This new act shifts the focus from the wellbeing of endangered species to the goals and needs of developers. This is a significantly watered down act, impotent to protect endangered species and completely ignorant of environmental recovery and stewardship.

Scientists, not developers, should define what a habitat means; reducing the definition of an animal's habitat from the area on which the species depends, including for food, reproduction, migration, and hibernation, down to just their immediate den, is a death sentence for species at risk.

Additionally, allowing any project to begin work as soon as they complete an online form, without any oversight or approval before shovels hit the ground, is a sure way to allow forward irresponsible and destructive projects to cause damage to our environment.

I've included a link to an investigative report consulting scientists who discuss the severe negative impacts this change could spell for endangered species in Ontario.

Maintaining animal and planetary health is critical to Ontario's future, and gutting the Endangered Species Act is a sure way to cause degradation of our ecosystems. Policy decisions like this make me fear for the Ontario of the future, that my children will inherit from me.