Bill 5 would repeal Ontario…

Bill 5 would repeal Ontario's Endangered Species Act, 2007, marking the end of most meaningful provincial protections for endangered, threatened and special concern species in Ontario. This new law, the so-called “Species Conservation Act, 2025” would declare open season on Ontario species that are listed as Endangered, Threatened or of Special Concern.

Unlike 2007 Act, which puts the legal determination of which species are endangered, threatened, extirpated or of special concern in the hands of the arms-length Committee on the Status of Species at Risk in Ontario, the Species Conservation Act, 2025, would make that recognition an arbitrary political decision. The government could arbitrarily refuse to recognize in the regulations that a species is at-risk at all.

The major difference between the registry that exists from 2007 and what’s proposed is that change to the definition of habitat that wider area that each species needs to survive all thought the year. The changes in the law mean any construction or project proponents no longer need to register to protect the broader area that species use — just the individual species, like using only the drip line of a tree to protect its survival.

I urge your government to bring this most important and impactful legislation to the public via full committee hearings with expert witnesses. Your mandate was not to do whatever you "could" by fast and rash actions, but to govern for all the people of Ontario and that includes hearing, listening, and amending this legislation to respect all life in Ontario.