Work should not be able to…

Work should not be able to begin just because there is a registration. There needs to be at least some preliminary steps before land use purpose is changed. What would prevent an entity from registering and then damaging extremely sensitive ecosystems that could have long term impacts on us, never mind the species at risk? This is an irresponsible way to handle requests and potentially irreversible. Additionally, there should not be government discretion around what species can be added and removed from the list. It should be based on risk, science and evidence, not discretion. We can't make these types of decisions without considering the critical role some of these species have in our food production, for example. I encourage any changes to the Act to consider the big picture and not just how quickly land can be converted from natural habitat.