"There is not enough public…

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013-4143

Comment ID

21088

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Individual

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Comment

"There is not enough public notice before a new species is automatically listed on the Species at Risk in Ontario List."

- The current amount of public notice is adequate. All kinds of public notice and in particular, time, would lead to detrimental impacts to Species at Risk and Species at Risk Habitat. For example, imagine a SAR tree species being considered for listing and then achieving habitat protection within the next 1-2 years. All businesses and landowners who were considering clearing land or filling in a wetland, or building within a forested habitat would swiftly work to cut down that tree and/or its habitat prior to the habitat protections being implemented leading to an overall disastrous impact to that species.

"In some cases, automatic species and habitat protections can contribute to high uncertainty and costly impacts to businesses and the public."

- Has there been a price on the protection of any specific species at risk? Just like fisheries protection, drinking water protection, and air quality protection costs the people of Ontario money, so too does the protection of Species at Risk in Ontario. It is the cost of doing business and people/businesses need to deal with it.

"In many cases, conducting a review of progress towards the protection and recovery of a species within five years of the Government Response Statement is too soon."

- It is too soon if the protection of Species at Risk is not viewed as a priority in Ontario. 5 years is a lot of time to write up a some paragraphs about what the government is barely doing/intends to do to protect species at risk. In fact, I find it humorous that 5 years to write these fluffy review statements is being considered as not long enough. If more money was contributed to the protection of Species at Risk and more work was being done to help their recovery, the government would have more to write about and then we can talk about an extension on conducting a review of progress.