The Endangered Species Act…

The Endangered Species Act as laid out in 2007 is already rather weak in protections. The intended changes to it would remove reasonable checks and balances that our province's ecosystems desperately need to survive.

The major human-made contributor to species becoming threatened, endangered, or extinct is habitat loss. Until relatively recently, critical habitats in Ontario and Canada in general were destroyed without regard to the animals, plants, and fungi inhabiting them. The habitat loss can lead to secondary causes of population decline when human-introduced species crowd what little habitat is left and out-compete the native species.

Specifically, the new proposed definition of "habitat" in the Act is alarming. It is far too narrow to keep already endangered species safe. There is also no good reason to remove "harass" from the Act as it was already defined clearly in 2007. Disrupting the regular behaviours needed for life is equivalent to sentencing endangered individuals and populations to death.

These proposed changes are short-sighted at best - we may not see the direct impact on our endangered species until a few generations of those species have felt the effects. These changes would actively destroy the parts of Ontario that make us special. People come from all over the world to enjoy nature in Ontario. Allowing industrial ventures to behave the way they did in the past with the Special Economic Zones would cause a cascade of destruction that will eventually make our beautiful province unrecognizable.