This comment represents a…

This comment represents a joint submission on behalf of Animbiigoo Zaagi’igan Anishinaabek, Aroland First Nation, Attawapiskat First Nation, Biigtigong Nishnaabeg, Eagle Lake First Nation, and Shawanaga First Nation on the “10th Year review of Ontario’s Endangered Species Act: Discussion Paper” document. Our submission includes the following components summarized below:

1. Introductory Letter
• Our submission focuses on the involvement of First Nations, including those involved in Indigenous Guardians programs, in Species at Risk (SAR) protection and recovery in Ontario, as well as more effective integration of Traditional Ecological Knowledge in species listing and recovery planning efforts.
• As First Nations. we are the stewards of their lands and waters, it is essential to have legislation and regulations in Ontario that include true collaboration with First Nations regarding Ontario’s Species at Risk protection and recovery efforts.
• Contributors to this DRAFT ESA Review memo: Shared Value Solutions and Olthius Kleer Townshend LLP
• The submission of this letter should not be considered in any way “consultation” with the signatory First Nations, as the 45-day comment period is insufficient and no capacity support was provided to encourage First Nations contributions. The MECP should continue to engage with the signatory First Nations even after this comment period has closed.
• We are concerned that the MECP has already decided that they are going to reduce protections for SAR and streamline approvals processes for industry in Ontario, as evidenced by the tone of the challenges and questions outlined in their discussion paper.

2. ESA Review Memo

Primary Comment: There is a need for true collaboration with First Nations regarding Ontario’s SAR protection and recovery efforts. True collaboration begins with meaningful communication, notification, consultation, and leads to joint planning and work to protect Species at Risk and related habitat. This could include, but should not be limited to:
o Significant, cross-Ontario Indigenous Knowledge Holder Membership on the Committee on the Status of Species at Risk in Ontario (COSSARO).
o Include a standing item on the meeting agendas of COSSARO and the Program Advisory Committee (PAC) regarding the inclusion of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK).
o Develop guidance documents with First Nations peoples for:
• how to effectively incorporate Indigenous knowledge in Species at Risk protection and recovery;
• how to assess, evaluate and provide inclusive consideration for species considered to be at risk by First Nations people due in relation to food security, harvesting, teaching, medicine and spiritual needs; and
• how to collaborate effectively with Indigenous Guardians on Species at Risk monitoring, protection, and recovery.
o Adapt the structure of species recovery teams to create a team dedicated to Traditional Ecological Knowledge integration AND move to have Traditional Knowledge holder representatives on all species recovery teams.
o When developing or updating species recovery strategies and government response statements include a First Nation engagement and collaboration component that includes travelling to communities to learn and transfer species at risk knowledge allowing the braiding of Indigenous and western science.
o As part of the development, updating, and/or evaluating the success of a species recovery strategy and government response statements, include conducting Species at Risk inventories for those species on First Nation traditional territories, including reserve lands. This should be done in full collaboration with First Nations and include the involvement of local Indigenous monitors and/ or guardians.
o Continue to administer the Species at Risk Stewardship Fund (SARSF), especially to support Indigenous-led Species at Risk recovery efforts, which also generates the added benefit of local employment and capacity building within First Nations across the province of Ontario.

Area of Focus 1: Landscape Approaches
o A landscape-level approach could better integrate Indigenous worldviews into the Endangered Species Act and harmonize with existing federal processes, if it were implemented in tandem with single-species approaches.

Area of Focus 2: Listing Process and Protection for Species at Risk
o Improve the process of species listing by the Committee on the Status of Species at Risk in Ontario (COSSARO) by ensuring the incorporation of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) into western science-based decision-making in practice, not just on paper.
o Make information on species listing as well as automatic species and habitat protections more accessible to, but not open for debate by, the public.

Area of Focus 3: Species Recovery Policies and Habitat Regulations
o Species at Risk do require habitat protections and effective recovery activities to ensure the species can both survive and thrive for generations to come. Species recovery strategies, government response statements, and habitat regulations must be carried out in a way that promotes species protection, survival, and recovery. It is not about the timelines of the recovery strategy and government response statement, but rather ensuring these tools contain activities and mechanisms that truly enable SAR recovery.

Area of Focus 4: Authorization Processes
o While economic development is important and necessary in Ontario, the purpose of the Ontario Endangered Species Act is not to promote or ease economic development in Ontario but to protect and recover Species at Risk and ensure that authorized development activities do not negatively impact Species at Risk or their habitats.
o The ecological complexity needed to sustain Species at Risk in living ecosystems is married to First Nations’ cultural relationships to place, and is largely incompatible with having businesses paying into a conservation fund dedicated to species at risk conservation, or allowing conservation banking to enable addressing requirements for species at risk prior to activities.