These proposed changes are…

These proposed changes are ominous. Ontario’s Endangered Species Act of 2007 is a strong and effective statute, a stellar example of what other provinces should have had decades ago. That Act has all six of the essential elements for protection and conservation of endangered species:

1. broad scope – covering a “species, subspecies, variety or genetically or geographically distinct population of animal, plant or other organism, other than a bacterium or virus, that is native to Ontario”,
2. scientific listing – by an independent committee with “relevant expertise from a scientific discipline such as conservation biology, population dynamics, taxonomy, systematics or genetics or aboriginal traditional knowledge”,
3. political designation – by a minister being empowered to request the committee to reassess its listing,
4. protection of listed organisms from killing, harm, capture, trade, etc., coupled with a requirement for recovery strategies,
5. protection and restoration of habitat – broadly defined as “an area on which the species depends, directly or indirectly, to carry on its life processes, including life processes such as reproduction, rearing, hibernation, migration or feeding”, and including provision for stewardship agreements to protect habitat on private land, and
6. enforceable provisions, including habitat protection orders and fines of up to $1 million.

If this emasculation of the Ontario Act goes through, Ontario will be back to where provinces like BC are currently – with virtually no protection of those endangered species that are still hanging on. Please don't go from being the most progressive province in Canada for protection of species at risk to being the worst.