Here are my comments,…

Here are my comments, reading your proposal:

1) The government should not have the authority to remove species from the list of protected species in disagreement with COSSARO. Classification should be left to the independent science-backed subject matter expert's-based board, who are not at risk of conflict of interest. The government should not have say here - if they cannot abide by an independent science-based board, then the government is not acting in good faith.

2) Habitats are diverse and complex by definition. Your definition makes me think you would consider it OK to take a tree where an endangered bird is nesting, build an apartment complex around it, and say it's OK, it's protected.
Animals need to eat - they need the plants around them to be a certain way, the animals around them to be a certain way, the water flow and tree growth and fauna composition to be a certain way, they need certain water and soil quality. They need to forage and hunt. Some animals are more sensitive to disturbances than others. Changes outside the immediate habitat can wreck their immediate habitat, especially considering the flow and quality of water. That involves so much more than just where they immediately sleep, hibernate, or rear their young. This is such a bad-faith definition, it makes me want to scream.

2.1) "for clarity, proponents of activities may need to reconsider the magnitude of impacts according to the updated definitions and consider whether a permit or registration is required"
The vast majority of proponents are not interested in environmental protections beyond what the government requires. I think you know this. The government needs to set the standard, and they need to enforce it. Removing enforcement is benefiting private industry, of which we know is in close ties with the current government from the Greenbelt scandal and the conflicts of interest present at Doug Ford's daughter's wedding, at the demise of environmental protections.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. That's why environmental protection is so important - once done, it can't be undone. Please stop burning what few environmental protections we have. There's enough land and resources without having to decimate already at-risk ecosystems.

When you think about your children and grandchildren staring at our decaying planet and thinking back to what their family members did to contribute in Ontario, I hope the actions you're taking now are the ones you want to leave behind.