This proposed change is…

This proposed change is something I am heavily against. This is because after reading the text of the changes, it seems very possible for many projects to easily get through with causing direct harm to the environment which leads to worse health for humans and also impact crucial ecosystems in Ontario. A clean environment is needed so that if we want to develop a natural resource in Ontario, the people around can live there safely and that the operation is sustainable instead of a one time bulldozing of an ecosystem. I agree that critical minerals of Ontario are a great economic activity but if regulations are loosened on managing waste and pollution along having to rehabilitate land after mine has been exhausted, it is a terrible idea.

https://www.who.int/teams/environment-climate-change-and-health/air-qua…

https://www.cleanairfund.org/theme/economics/

https://www.oecd.org/content/dam/oecd/en/publications/reports/2016/06/t…

https://www.dw.com/en/toxic-and-radioactive-the-damage-from-mining-rare…

Specifically in the bill, it seems weird that the Lieutenant Governor that the government appoints has power to remove species from the Endangered Species List. It seems confusing why the definition of habitat has been watered down to only include “area on which any member of a species directly depends on”. This seems to be a vague statement and purposely weakened to not include things such as an upstream component of the river that an ecosystem depends on or stopping the ability for animals to cross zones leading to reduced pollination, access to prey, and nutrient cycling.

https://www.ola.org/sites/default/files/node-files/bill/document/pdf/20…

Also I disagree heavily for zones that have special economic zones that are exempt from regulations, this isn’t some simple thing like taxes or some other trivial thing that can be ignored based on zones, the environment affects many species including us humans wherever something is built, this is not something where you can ignore certain zones. Toxic air and water from a non-regulated mine will spread and can spread up the food chain so it seems absurd to have exemption zones.