If Ontario was truly…

If Ontario was truly committed to conserving and protecting species like you state in the proposal details, this bill would not be passed. There is no way to actually protect the habitats, behaviours, and proliferation of at-risk species by narrowing down the definition of "habitat." By the definition in the bill, if you were to come across the nest of an endangered species like the Eastern Box Turtle, you could just bulldoze the entire area around it, leave the nest intact, and call it "conservation." Instead of actually protecting at-risk species, this bill encourages the destruction of protected habitats by letting developers use permits to get around environmental protections and not have to face consequences for disrupting our precious wildlife.

It should not be up to the government to control what species are considered protected, endangered, or threatened, but up to the environmental scientists who have done the research and understand firsthand what these species need to thrive.

Urban development is important, but not at the cost of our environment and landscape. In the short-term, it may provide an economic boost, but the long-term effects will be devastating. By allowing development on protected habitats like wetlands, we are destroying areas that are key to preventing destructive floods and soak up the greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. These wetlands are home to 20% of our at-risk species, so they're crucial in species conservation and the fight against climate change. We are already facing the effects of climate change. Let's not add to that even more.

If transportation is so important, why not fix existing transportation systems, highways, public transit, so we can really be efficient that way? Why not solve the housing and infrastructure issues in Ontario that are already affecting us? If we really wanted to develop Ontario and to help the people that live here, we should be focusing on the problems that already exist, not creating more problems in the future just for short-term gain and ruining our environment at the same time.