In my understanding of the…

In my understanding of the legislation - The proposed Species Conservation Act, 2025 would devastate wildlife protection through several concerning changes not limited to:

1. Narrowing of Protected Habitats:
The new definition of a habitat reduces protected areas to only immediate surroundings, ignoring crucial feeding grounds and migration corridors that species depend on for survival– these loopholes expose endangered species to the threat of extinction without directly "killing" them. For example, birds and predators don't live in one human defined area and it is short-sighted to define a habitat so narrowly.

2. Political Control Over Species Protection:
The government will gain unprecedented power to decide which endangered species get added or removed from protection lists on the basis of political and economic considerations rather than reality.
I oppose the section of the bill that contains the legislative change to enact the Special Economic Zones Act. Schedule 9 - allows the government to create special economic zones and the Minister can designate projects for any reason or without any oversight. This is the creation of sacrifice zones and there is no purpose clause. It is a blank slate for government to do whatever they want. This is so dangerous to our democracy - there is no transparency or no criteria spelled out. Also once they are designated these zones can be exempted from all provincial laws. This is ridiculous and dangerous. This is an unfounded transfer of power from the legislature to the Minister. This is not a good choice for Ontarians. We need to have oversight of what our government is doing and we need to ensure that there is protection for people and the environment who are impacted by the development. 5.

3. Lack of Oversight:
Developers can begin harmful activities immediately after self-registration without ministry review or approval. Crucial environmental assessments will be eliminated before damage occurs, with inadequate penalties.

In particular it will impact on development of Ontario Place to which I am opposed as it is not a good use of public space to create a private spa that has a 99 year contract. "I am writing to object in the strongest possible way to the proposed exemptions from the Environmental Bill of Rights that will remove the right of Ontarians to be advised of, or to comment on, any required permits at Ontario Place, on or off site, to support the project.

The Environmental Bill of Rights exists to ensure that Ontario's environment in all its forms is protected for future generations. As this applies to Ontario Place, thousands of Ontarians have spoken out about their concerns related to protection of this fragile waterfront ecosystem. They have provided well-informed, intelligent commentary along with realistic and reasonable alternatives to the government's current plans. This move not only deprives citizens of their rights but the government of valuable community knowledge.

The proposal is not in the public interest, compromises the future of this critical waterfront site and serves only to benefit the private interests of foreign companies. Instead it represents one more compromise in environmental protection, and citizen's rights to be informed, at a time when Ontario along with the rest of the planet is facing a climate and biodiversity crisis."

4. Bill 5 removes duty to consult First Nations
This is dangerous and unnecessary. We have communities like Grassy Narrows and Constance Lake First Nations who are still suffering the consequences of economic development that was unfettered.

Also it seems that bill exempts development from both ecological and archaeological assessments, which risks the destruction of First Nation burial sites, artifacts and lands