Dear Premier Ford, On a…

Dear Premier Ford,

On a daily basis, several measures we pay little attention to quietly keep people safe. Time and time again, whether it is vaccination protecting people against communicable diseases, or building codes that protect us from natural disasters, we see matters where protection and prevention should be first priority. When we begin to undermine preventions, damages that occur may not only more costly to repair than preventive measures (Andres et al., 2024; Drupp et al., 2024), they can be less effective and irreparable (Ten Brink, 2025). Keeping and strengthening our species protections through the Endangered Species Act and following meticulous, responsible and thorough development processes are simply more examples of prevention we cannot lose.

With the repeal of the Endangered Species Act and its replacement by the Species Conservation Act, irreversible harm will be done to Ontario’s ecosystems, lands, and people. While the Species Conservation Program promises a $20 million designation for the “protection and conservation of species” (Government of Ontario, 2025), the ecological damages that will arise from the reduction in species protections will cost far beyond. Studies such as those by Deloyde and Mabee, 2023, as well as Troy and Bagstad, 2009, demonstrate that ecosystems can provide from tens of thousands of dollars of value in small regions to billions of dollars solely in Southern Ontario through services such as flood prevention, improving water quality and nutrient cycling. Habitat loss is a primary factor of biodiversity loss globally, with urban development being a notable driver (Li et al., 2022). Without the more extensive habitat protections under the ESA, the health of these ecosystems are at risk as species numbers and diversity will continue to decline at a more rapid rate. Biodiversity loss would result in a significant reduction in the effectiveness of our ecosystem services (Oliver et al., 2015), putting Ontarians at a disadvantage and increasing our expenses to re-compensate for the free services we would lose. Ultimately, this $20 million designation through the Species Conservation Program would perform minimal to nearly no damage control from the development that would take place and further indicates a repeal of the ESA to be an irresponsible economic decision.

The tragedy of prevention arises when we forget why preventive policies like the Endangered Species Act were initially implemented, when we cannot see how they protect and benefit us continuously, and when we do not realize the harm we have avoided until these policies are no longer in place. Biodiversity loss continues to threaten our livelihoods on a local to global scale. Provincially, devastated ecosystems have direct effects on industries such as agriculture and flood prevention, spelling a risk for the safety of Ontarians, our ecosystems and our wildlife if the ESA is removed. Allocating resources to repair subsequent damages should always be a last resort. Ontarians cannot afford the cost to repair the ecological damages that will be done when species extinction is irreversible. I urge you to reject Bill 5 and strengthen the Endangered Species Act to protect our province’s ecosystems, economy and future generations.

References

Andres, S. E., Mills, C. H., Gallagher, R. V., & Adams, V. M. (2024). A framework for ecological restoration cost accounting across context and scale. Biological Conservation, 295, 110671. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2024.110671

Drupp, M. A., Hänsel, M. C., Fenichel, E. P., Freeman, M., Gollier, C., Groom, B., Heal, G. M., Howard, P. H., Millner, A., Moore, F. C., Nesje, F., Quaas, M. F., Smulders, S., Sterner, T., Traeger, C., & Venmans, F. (2024). Accounting for the increasing benefits from scarce ecosystems. Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science), 383(6687), 1062–1064. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adk2086

Government of Ontario. (2025, April 17). Ontario Unleashing Economic Potential of Critical Mineral and Resource Development | Ontario Newsroom. Ontario Newsroom. https://news.ontario.ca/en/release/1005791/ontario-unleashing-economic-…

Li, G., Fang, C., Li, Y., Wang, Z., Sun, S., He, S., Qi, W., Bao, C., Ma, H., Fan, Y., Feng, Y., & Liu, X. (2022). Global impacts of future urban expansion on terrestrial vertebrate diversity. Nature Communications, 13(1), 1628. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29324-2

Oliver, T. H., Isaac, N. J. B., August, T. A., Woodcock, B. A., Roy, D. B., & Bullock, J. M. (2015). Declining resilience of ecosystem functions under biodiversity loss. Nature Communications, 6(1), 10122. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms10122

Ten Brink, H. (2025). Environmental Change Can Result in Irreversible Biodiversity Loss in Recently Formed Species Flocks. Global Change Biology, 31(5), e70239. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.70239