I am shocked and ashamed…

I am shocked and ashamed that our government is suggesting this short-sighted approach to development in Ontario. For shame.

I have no expertise in environmental sciences, but like many I respect and value our natural surroundings for the gifts that they give us, and know that they are precious and fragile. If obtaining permits for development is slow and complex, that is a price that we must all be willing to pay so that evaluation of the environmental risk of any given project is fulsome and accurate. Investors and developers may see the permit process, and any checks and balances, as unpleasant wastes of time and money, but the average person does not have profit as their main goal. Any time or money saved by removing evaluations, measurements, reviews, limitations, and protections comes at real and potentially life-threatening risk to endangered species and biomes.

These are not just animals and plants that live out their lives unseen by most. They all play a part in the interconnected system of our world. Limiting a species' habitat to the area immediately around where they live is an embarrassing lapse of common sense, not only considering the many species that migrate through and out of Ontario. Harm to one species has a chain-reaction that impacts the rest of a food chain and ecosystem. That includes us.

Short-sightedness regarding the true cost of profit is a well-known folly. Our government must not fall victim to it. Please, drop Bill 5 and plans to scrap the Endangered Species Act or implement “regulation-free zones” for resource extraction. Instead, commit to strengthening the Endangered Species Act.