This bill is a direct…

This bill is a direct assault on Ontario’s wildlife and biodiversity. Repealing the Endangered Species Act, 2007—one of the province’s strongest legal tools for protecting imperiled species—and replacing it with the weak and developer-driven Species Conservation Act, 2025 is reckless, irresponsible, and unacceptable.

The so-called “registration-first” model strips away critical oversight, allowing destructive activities to proceed with minimal scrutiny. Developers will be able to damage or destroy vital habitat without waiting for ministry approval—essentially putting industry in charge of policing itself. This is not conservation; it’s deregulation disguised as reform.

Narrowing the legal definition of “habitat,” removing the prohibition on harassment, and eliminating mandatory recovery strategies will severely undermine species recovery efforts. Even worse, giving government discretion to ignore science and remove species from protection completely severs any pretense of evidence-based policy.

Wildlife does not recover through voluntary programs and loopholes—it recovers through strong laws, enforced with integrity and accountability. This bill caters to short-term economic interests while sacrificing the long-term health of ecosystems and the species that depend on them. Once a species is gone, it’s gone forever.

This legislation must be rejected in its entirety. Ontario’s wildlife cannot afford this betrayal.