Our Economic Insurance…

Our Economic Insurance Policy

Imagine granting someone guardianship over your invaluable Legacy, who then hands it over to questionable speculators that use your Legacy to line their own pockets! It's future value is destroyed and all that's left are stranded assets and no accountability!

Big housing developments in Ontario might look like quick wins now, but they’re shaping up to be stranded assets. A lot are being built on flood-prone land or near sensitive habitats, which means rising insurance costs, or no insurance at all plus expensive infrastructure that towns can’t afford to maintain long-term. They destroy the natural systems that keep water clean, prevent floods, and make these places livable. As climate risks grow and buyers look for more sustainable, connected communities, these sprawl-style developments are losing value and appeal. What seems profitable today could end up as a costly burden tomorrow, for homeowners, taxpayers, and municipalities.

Protecting species and their habitats isn’t just about wildlife, it’s about keeping Ontario’s economy running smoothly for everyone and avoiding massive costs down the line.

1. Pollinators = Crop Profits

Wild pollinators native bees, butterflies, and beetles add over $900 million a year to Canada’s crop production. In Ontario alone, their value is in the hundreds of millions. But they only thrive in diverse, connected habitats. Pave that over, and farmers end up relying on costly, less reliable alternatives.

2. Birds Plant Forests (for Free)

Birds and animals spread seeds and help forests grow back after logging or storms. That’s free labor worth millions annually. Reforestation by machines and people costs $1,500–$3,000 per hectare. Protecting wildlife means we don’t pay to do what nature already does!

3. Clean Water Saves Money
Healthy wetlands and forests filter water naturally. Lose them, and taxpayers pick up the bill for water treatment, flood damage, and infrastructure fixes. Just one major flood cleanup can cost $30–$100 million. Preventing it with healthy ecosystems is a bargain by comparison.

4. Reputation Matters!

Premium exports like Canadian ginseng, maple syrup, and wild blueberries rely on Ontario’s clean, natural image. Asian markets especially pay top dollar for products from low-pollution, biodiverse regions. Lose the habitats, and you lose that market edge.

5. Nature-Based Tourism

Wildlife tourism brings in billions across Canada, and Ontario’s share, through birding, hiking, and paddling, supports rural jobs and small businesses. If species disappear, so do those visitors. And you can’t rebuild that kind of draw once it’s gone.

The Bottom Line:
Damaging these systems to make things easier for development today just shifts the cost to everyone else, farmers, small businesses, municipalities, and future generations.

Habitat protection isn’t red tape, it’s Economic Insurance!

Specific notes regarding the proposed changes:

Registration-first Approach
Registration leading to works prior to inventory across the board has so many unknown consequences to our ecological assets. On site inventory is paramount as the records only account for species that have been observed and recorded on the property, and there are numerous species discovered during the inventory process that will warrant mitigation measures to prevent death or harm to their breeding habitats. It cannot be assumed that these areas have been inventoried adequately at the time of registration. Ecosystems rely on all their parts and their resilience relies on inventory and planning. This takes time.
I have not once seen a permit denied, but I have seen many landowners adjust their plans to accommodate the consequences, this can only occur when care is taken during the permitting process.

Species Classification and Listing
COSSARO is a bipartisan organization. We trust that their research leads to prudent management of our natural resources. This is not a decision that should be made my elected members. The delegation of species at risk should be performed by experts who are trained to manage public natural resources.

Redefining Protections
If you consider animals like people, you cannot give them a home and a hospital but remove gathering places for social activities, to meet new people, to meet their mates. These habitats secure all populations - people and species at risk. For plants - simply protecting the critcalroot zone can only protect the individual but does not protect its ability to reproduce- which is dependent on associated plant species and the canopy conditions that allow for flowering, fruiting, seed dispersal and germination.
The word harass is appropriate and was chosen to describe behaviours that are harmful to their life cycle.

Recovery Plans and Documents
Recovery plans and documents are our insurance policy. We acknowledge that there will be development, but we need a baseline to determine if our efforts are working or if they should be adjusted. This process is key to ensuring the public assets of these species are being managed responsibly by our government. These species provide services to all Ontarians of all economic classes. We all require clean air, clean water and these species are integral to our ecosystem’s continuing to provide these services.

Advisory Committees
Advisory committees are teams of experts who have spent lifetimes learning about the interface between humans and these species. They are our gateway to successful stewardship- both of our ecological assets and of the money we invest into their restoration and conservation. If we are to spend 20 million per year investing in these species, we need these committees to ensure our investments are well spent.

Overall the proposed changes leading to the Conservation Act are ignoring the imperative functions of our ecosystems, there is a base assumption that these species at risk are not providing us with infinite services. But they are. The loss on one species trickles down, and more are lost because the ecosystem, like a healthy economy is circular.

Please keep the existing Endangered Species Act, step back and allow us to improve our ecological assets. This investment is in our long term economy, not short term gains.