As someone who cares deeply…

As someone who cares deeply about this province, affordable housing, and the environment, the proposed changed to the Endangered Species Act, 2007 and its replacement, the Species Conservation Act, 2025 are extremely troubling and I cannot support this in good conscience.

Under the new Species Conservation Act, the updated definition of the term "habitat" alone will cause immeasurable long-term damage to both our economy and opportunity for scientific study. For example, part of the definition of a habitat for an animal species under this act is "the area immediately surrounding a dwelling place [...] that is essential for the purposes mentioned [breeding, rearing, staging, wintering, or hibernating]."

This is far too open to interpretation because it does not specify what "immediately surrounding" means. Under the new definition, could I not build a house five feet beside a threatened species' nesting place because the "immediate surroundings" five feet around the nest are left alone?

I urge you to consult the scientific community to establish a much clearer definition to prevent bad actors from taking advantage of the ambiguous wording.

I am also concerned with the precedent this sets when paired with the proposed Special Economic Zones Act. Under the SEZA, the idea that certain parties can be designated as trusted proponents at the discretion of the Minister is even more disturbing. This exposes the Minister to enormous conflicts of interest as he is given the power to say what projects can move forward and give blanket exemptions "from requirements under an Act, regulation or other instrument under an Act". This would include exemptions to both the Endangered Species Act and its replacement.

This is a clear loophole and I'm shocked to see wording this broad move forward.

These laws exist for a reason. We should work on speeding up projects within the regulations we have rather than weakening them, and under no circumstances should we give one person the power to ignore them with no consultation whatsoever. As someone who intends to live here forever, I believe that these proposals are a gross misstep and will hurt Ontario both economically and environmentally.

Green spaces not only protect threatened species, but provide tremendous benefits that don't appear on balance sheets like absorption of stormwater runoff, purification of drinking water and cooling the surrounding area in hot summers, just to name a few.

With the above in mind, I will not support anyone who supports this proposal as it stands. I strongly urge Provincial Parliament to advocate for our environment as well as our economy. It doesn't have to be one or the other. We can do both.

Thank you for your time.