I am a resident of Ontario…

I am a resident of Ontario and I stand against Bill 5. I am not an environmentalist or trained in protection of endangered species, but I am trained in understanding language, and the language of this bill, even in the introduction, sends huge red flags as a system that will allow individuals and corporations to destroy the environment first and answer / remediate after. You cannot bring back a species that has become extinct.

Two glaring examples are:

“most proponents will be able to begin an activity immediately after registering” - this will allow work to happen that will destroy habitats and wipe out entire species as soon as someone fills out a form online. I understand the need to make the process efficient but not at the expense of years of hard work setting up protections for vital species of plants and animals.

“However, the government would have discretion to add extirpated, endangered, and threatened species to the list of protected species. The government would also have discretion to remove protected species from the list.” - this would allow members of the government, who are NOT trained in environmental protection, to remove species from protection, just to suit their purposes. This decision must remain with bodies who are at arm's length from agreements or ‘deals’ that may be made.

Decades of work protecting the environment and putting legislation in place to continue that protection will be wiped out by this Bill. Questionable short-term gain will have definite and lasting long-term loss.