Hello, I urge the government…

Hello,

I urge the government of Ontario to repeal this Bill, Bill 5, as it would do more harm than good towards the environment. As a citizen of Ontario, I actually do not want "projects" that are "good for the economy" to go through "faster" if it's at the expense of destroying precious habitat for our most vulnerable wildlife.

We are already past the point of no return when it comes to climate change. We must strengthen our protections of our flora and fauna if we want a future for our children. It is extremely dangerous to allow developers to begin projects "immediately after registering" before knowing the effect on the environment. The process to get a permit is slow and complex BECAUSE these things ARE complex and GOOD WORK takes TIME ! I resent the provinces wording here as the "delays" are necessary and you can't built GOOD HEALTHY critical infrastructure without taking into account EVERYTHING-- including habitat loss!

This Bill is an insult; the core of it is detrimental to species at risk but is padded with positive oxymorons. "strengthen our ability to enforce species protection laws to ensure that all proponents comply with the rules and expectations of this new approach" How is it strengthening enforcement when developers can get started without full approval? Couldn't a developer just SAY they met all the requirements set out in new regulations but not actually do so? Developers don't exactly have the most trusted track record. Especially when they are bound by forces of "economy".

To take a random example, if a developer wanted to build a highway, but the highway goes through a habitat with a frog at risk, and going around the habitat would cost an extra 30 million dollars, a developer is trapped by the parameters of business, economy, shareholders, to get the best deal. They would register for a permit, begin building, and whenever the province steps in to be like, "hey, you can't build here, there's a frog", it's too late. The highway is completed, frogs are dead. Maybe, according the new definition of "habitat" in this bill, there would be a small pond in the middle of the road where the frog burrows, where it would suffocate without the air, water, and food necessary to survive. It's an "ask for forgiveness not permission" Bill, which is fast tracking environmental destruction. Robert Moses, the person who almost single handedly turned NYC into a congested traffic hellhole, loved this method. There's precedent.

Species extinction and climate death are permanent. Waiting a bit longer for an environmental assessment to go through before building, frankly, is not. This Bill is an greenwashed opaque front for the rich to get richer faster, leaving the rest of us, flora fauna and the people of Ontario, to suffer.