Hello! I live in Ontario. I…

Hello!

I live in Ontario. I'm writing to you today to condemn Bill 5 and to urge you to use your platform to speak strongly against it. If pushed through as Ford has been diligently attempting (passing it's second hearing long before the opportunity for public comment has even ended) this Bill will absolutely cause irreparable damage to the health of this province. The priorities as they are laid out in Bill 5 fly in the face of its title: Protect Ontario by Unleashing Our Economy Act, 2025. Bill 5 will not be protecting anything but the profit margins of developers, mining and logging companies.

A simple quote from Bill 5 to begin: “...the proposed changes would provide a reasonable, balanced approach to protecting species in Ontario”

Reasonable and Balanced? According to who? Obviously not anyone who has any knowledge about what conserving threatened species actually looks like. Endangered species protections are NOT the enemy of economic health. Politicians should not give themselves the authority to make these kinds of changes. Bill 5 and the suggestions therein are an incredibly lazy way to think about the problem of stimulating economic growth.

I think we can all agree the housing crisis should be at the forefront of our minds; the homelessness epidemic here in my city has reached desperate proportions, and most cities in Ontario are seeing the same kind of suffering, mortality and EXPENSE of providing services for unhoused individuals in this vulnerable population. We need to fix this problem, and we absolutely need supportive and affordable housing ASAP. But harnessing the stress and fear of our population while it is in this vulnerable position, to suggest that the only option is to REDUCE protections of the only healthy ecosystems we have left... it's predatory and underhanded. The small healthy pieces of the ecosystem we have left in this province are not simply blank slates to be razed for industry and development. They are irreplaceable centers of biodiversity and ecological health that we cannot afford to do without; we are already problematically impoverished as to how much healthy old growth forest, wetland, and grassland ecosystems remain in this province – The level we're at is absolutely next to NOTHING compared to the recommended levels of conservation for overall health of populations and communities. We have a duty to ACTUALLY protect what remaining small chunks of ecosystems we have left, particularly given so much has already been lost to “unleashed” development of the past. Now that we know better, we must do better.

The false dichotomy presented by Bill 5, that conservation is the enemy, demonstrates a massive disrespect towards the hundreds of trained and experienced biologists, ecologists, indigenous knowledge keepers, botanists, entomologists, and countless other specialized professionals who have worked to make sure these protections exist in our province. The Endangered Species Act as it stands, after much labour, love, and rigorously and carefully collected DATA, exists to prevent endangered species from being lost in this province, and by doing so, serves to protect the human communities in this province as well. It's clear, the leadership of the Ontario conservative party has no understanding of how biodiversity works with regards to genetic diversity. Destroying populations of threatened species is irreversible, and WILL damage the resilience of all of our collective ecosystems, particularly in the face of shifting weather patterns and climate extremes. Biodiversity is the foundation, upon which, our food system (and therefore our life support system) rests. We CANNOT afford to lose more of it, and no amount of money in the future will make up for it.

The value of a healthy ecosystem goes deeper than the cash value of its timber or in how much a condo would make a developer. Healthy ecosystems are far more valuable in terms of Carbon sequestration, the provision of fresh water, nutrient cycling, flood control, pollination, not to mention culture, tourism and communities; to think and act otherwise is foolhardy. The Government of Ontario itself has suggested the dollar value of the province's biodiversity is $122.5 Billion, per year. Respecting the value of Ontario's biodiversity involves prioritizing our collective health by harnessing the potential of land we're already occupying but doing so with greater efficiency. It involves getting real about how to solve this problem without endangering the health of vulnerable species AND people, and it involves taking the sovereignty of indigenous nations on this land SERIOUSLY. It's depressing and disgusting to see how easily Ford's government disregards the safety and health of the ecosystems within which the people of Ontario live – and therefore disrespects the safety, health and CONSENT of the people themselves -- all for short sighted, monetary gain. (Might I draw your attention to the Dresden project that is ALREADY getting pushed through without the environmental assessments requested by the people who live there.) The blatant disrespect is appalling.

I had some real hope that Ford's refusal to endorse the Federal Conservatives in the face of the Trump regime might demonstrate a belief in and respect for the laws of the land over which he governs; instead Bill 5 is an attempt by the Government of Ontario to steamroll its own myopic priorities right over top of laws and systems currently in place to protect Ontario. Equally disturbing is the idea that uneducated politicians can step into positions, currently held by specialized professionals (or allowing their “trusted” friends to do so) with the weight and responsibility of assessing the health of our ecosystems; this is a recipe for disaster. We've already seen what happens when powerful people with friends in development act like they're invincible...

We said NO to the bulldozing of the greenbelt, and saw Ford go to extreme and illegal lengths to try to push his priorities through. We're saying NO again, and this time we're NOT giving Ford the benefit of the doubt. Bill 5 is a hostile attack on the health of Ontario’s natural spaces (think forests, wetlands, grasslands and waterways and the incredible array of species they support) and it is a hostile attack on the people who call Ontario home". I strongly oppose Bill 5.

Most Sincerely and Seriously,

A Concerned Ontario Resident