Under proposed changes: “…

Under proposed changes:

“ The role of the Committee on the Status of Species at Risk in Ontario (COSSARO), as an independent science-based committee responsible for assessing and classifying species in Ontario, will not change. 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.”

What’s the point of having an independent committee assess threat risks to species in Ontario if the government has the discretion to remove a species from that list if it would be expedient to do so? I oppose giving the government the authority to ignore
the expertise of an independent science based committee at their discretion because I have no confidence that the current government, or future governments for that matter, will not exercise this right in bad faith.