EACOM Timber Corporation…

EACOM Timber Corporation welcomes the 10th Year Review of Ontario’s Endangered Species Act (ESA) by the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP). We have reviewed the ESA policy proposal (ERO# 013-5033) posted to the Environmental Registry on April 18, as well as Bill 108 More Homes, More Choice Act introduced on May 2. I am pleased to submit comments on behalf of the Company.

Since 1994, the Crown Forest Sustainability Act (CFSA) has governed forest management to ‘provide for the sustainability of the Crown forests,’ consistent with ‘large, healthy, diverse and productive Crown forests and their associated ecological processes and biological diversity’. The CFSA establishes a robust management system with inventories, planning, monitoring, compliance and auditing built in. Ontario’s Forest Management Plans (FMP) offer a solid and comprehensive statutory, regulatory and policy guidance framework for species at risk (SAR).

As a solution to the CFSA/ESA harmonization challenge, EACOM has advocated for the CFSA to be recognized by the ESA as the right tool to manage for SAR found in Ontario’s Crown managed forests. Previous efforts to achieve harmonization have been unsuccessful largely due to the ESA’s Section 18 overall benefits test requirements.

In the recent policy proposal, MECP clarifies overall benefits test requirements to appropriately recognize sustainable forest management and enables recognition of FMPs under Section 18 of the ESA. The MECP also proposes to prescribe authorized forest management activities, conducted as per approved FMPs, through ESA regulations. EACOM believes that these measures will be necessary to ensure a durable Section 18 solution. It’s important to achieve a solution that supports forestry and SAR objectives without requiring an additional authorization process.

Nevertheless, there remain potential conflicts between the CFSA and the ESA that could create legal risks. A permanent Section 55 regulation, which has also been proposed to harmonize the ESA and CFSA, has been successfully defended in Ontario courts, albeit in the form of a temporary measure. We would therefore encourage a robust legal review of the current proposal to ensure a Section 18 outcome also minimizes risk of additional legal challenges.

Should such a legal review conclude otherwise, our recommendation would be to recognize sustainable forest management under the CFSA as functionally equivalent to the ESA, through a permanent Section 55(1)(b) regulation.

We applaud the government’s efforts to improve SAR guidance in Ontario through this review. We will continue collaborating to enable a more balanced approach to managing all forest values, including SAR.

Thank you for the opportunity to participate in this consultation.