I am a resident of London,…

I am a resident of London, ON, incredibly proud of this BEAUTIFUL and RARE ecoregion I live in, and the beauty of Southwest Ontario that is often undervalued compared to other provinces! I work as a horticulturist and outdoor guide. I volunteer with multiple environmental groups here in London. I have recently become a birder, and found out why people come from all over the world to Ontario: the vital migration pathway we hold for millions of birds necessary to ecosystems across North, Central, and South America! This land is ours to steward. We MUST listen to our environment and endangers species experts, protect what we have left and continue to work within the standards we have created for development. Bill 5 is an irreversible move backwards.

I speak for myself, my family, and my community when I saw we take responsibility to steward this land, which is why we strongly oppose the changes made to the Endangered Species Act through Bill 5: Protect Ontario by Unleashing Our Economy Act, 2025.

I call upon the government to find another way, within the Endangered Species Act and within our current laws and regulations, to protect its industries, mitigate the impact of trade disruptions, and ensure the long-term prosperity and security of the economy.

I call on the government to utilize the organizations and experts that we have in this province to build industry instead of removing the regulations and laws we have all agreed upon to protect the ecosystems, species, human health, and provide due and proper indigenous consultation.

The only emergency related to any of this is the climate crisis, of which the changes provide by the bill only exacerbates.

Through my own reading of the bill, and reference wildlife experts at Ontario Nature, Sierra Club, World Wildlife Federation Canada, and a webinar with Environmental Defense, it's been made clear that laws we have specifically dedicated to protecting species—particularly those at risk of extinction due to human activity—are put in place precisely because existing laws governing land use, water management, and resource extraction have failed to safeguard them. We must keep these laws as they have been established.

There is no research or facts provided in the Bill 5 proposal that show that the Endangered Species Act, as it is, is flawed or needs to be changes from a species protection perspective. The rationale that it's "complicated, takes too long to complete, and causes unnecessary delays" is not clear or supported enough to justify such changes.

The proposed new Species Conservation Act relies on voluntary initiatives and discretionary, not mandatory, species protection and eliminates requirements to create recovery strategies for at-risk species, making it nearly impossible to track and mitigate threats to their survival.

Reducing the definition of “habitat” to the immediate “dwelling place” of an endangered animal (such as around dens or nests) and the immediate “root zone” of an endangered plant is completely insufficient. If adopted, this change would doom endangered and threatened species to extinction. Protecting the den of an endangered animal (e.g. the southern American Badger) won’t keep it alive if the larger grasslands, forests or wetlands it depends on for food are paved for sprawl.

It is a resounding NO to repealing the Endangered Species Act. We can do much, much better! I believe in us!

To quote Ontario Nature: "If anything, Premier Ford should strengthen endangered species protection so wildlife can flourish and communities can benefit from conservation. That doesn’t mean stopping all development. It means building strong local economies that are in harmony with nature, not in conflict with nature."