This is to express my…

This is to express my profound objection to the effective repeal of the Endangered Species Act of 2007 and its replacement with a proposed Species Conservation Act, 2025. The Endangered Species Act was a long-overdue but forward looking piece of legislation that was and continues to be so needed in this province, which has a long history of unrestrained and destructive development, particularly in the mining, forestry and urban sectors (via urban sprawl). The province has already weakened protections for species-at-risk (since 2022), and continues what can only be seen as an assault on the habitats and ecosystems so many creatures (including us humans) depend on for well being and survival - whether this be via clear-cutting urban forests and trees, pushing through major highway developments, fast-tracking approvals and exempting select projects from Environmental Assessments (such as the landfill in Dresden and the special deal for the privatization of Ontario Place in Toronto), re-zoning large parts of the erstwhile protected Greenbelt to allow for (unwanted) highway construction and intensified suburban sprawl - the list goes on, and the proposed Species Conservation Act can only be seen as a part of this process. While "species conservation" sounds good, the Act replaces the binding protections of the Endangered Species Act with an "honour system," basically telling us to trust those very developers whose interests by definition lie in reducing "obstacles" to their main goal, which is to maximize sort-term profits. This is an outdated and narrow approach to development, one that appears to be blind to the fact that we share in and depend on biodiversity and living ecosystems, and that gutting the Endangered Species Act really only benefits a few players in the short term