I am deeply against the…

I am deeply against the proposed changes to the Endangered Species act.

I understand the need to keep the economy going but that cannot come at the cost of cutting these regulations that save important wildlife and habitat. Due proccess must be done to mitigate harm to Ontarios amazing diversity of life and the new proposed changes do not do nearly enough to save the valuable plants and animals that are already being put under stress from habitat fragmentation and climate change.

Cutting out large swaths of these animals from protections, like migratory birds and aquatic animals, is also incredibly short sighted.

What is the use of our economy now if we ruin our province for future generations through unchecked growth? What harm will we see passed down if we cut the regulations we have now? Will we get another Grassy Narrows? Where the people who live there have murcury poisoning and no way of getting help for the harm caused not only to their bodies but the whole poisoned environment in which they live? Their situation shames us as a provence and we should be looking for ways to never again have this situation be recreated but with the proposed changes that will only be a matter of time.

The current government should not be changing these regulations but finding better ways to protect and care for the amazing diversity that Ontario currently harbours. We are not seperate from the environment and when we protect it, it protects us. We live in mutual generosity. (like when we protect wetlands and they save us from flooding.)

The current govenment has shown they cannot be trusted to protect the environment when they continually have skirted and axed and sidled around environmental protections when for their benifit (or the benifit of folks close to them or who have the money to lobby them) but not the benifit of the people of Ontario.

e.g. pushing through a publicly funded but private spa on public lands, the greenbelt scandal, pushing highway 413/Bradford Bypass through sensitive habitat that enriches developers ( https://www.thestar.com/news/investigations/friends-with-benefits-an-in… "Eight of Ontario’s most powerful land developers own thousands of acres of prime real estate near the proposed route of the controversial Highway 413, a Torstar/National Observer investigation has found.

Four of the developers are connected to Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative government through party officials and former Tory politicians now acting as registered lobbyists.")

The Ontario government should do its job and instead of erasing current environmental protections and seeing them as a hinderance, it should be working with all the agencies and groups protecting the environment to create a healthier and more robust and diverse Ontario that will last far longer and be more stable in the years to come especially as we see climate change throw more severe weather, fires and climate events at us.

Thankyou.