Protecting wildlife is not…

Protecting wildlife is not only an environmental imperative but a responsibility we owe to future generations. Ontario’s biodiversity underpins our ecosystems, contributes to clean air and water, supports food security, and maintains the health of our natural heritage. Endangered species and their habitats are critical indicators of ecological health, and weakening their protection risks long-term environmental, economic, and social costs.

While the proposed "Protect Ontario by Unleashing our Economy Act, 2025" aims to streamline project approvals, it does so at the risk of undermining the integrity of the Endangered Species Act, 2007. The shift to a "registration-first" model, reduction in required recovery strategies, and removal of “harass” from species protections collectively represent a concerning loosening of safeguards. Giving the government discretion to add or remove species from the protected list—despite COSSARO’s science-based assessments—opens the door to decisions driven by short-term economic interests rather than ecological science.

Though the establishment of a new Species Conservation Program and increased funding are positive steps, they do not replace the critical function of enforceable legal protections or the value of transparent, public permit review. By allowing many potentially harmful activities to begin immediately upon registration, without prior oversight, we risk irreversible harm to vulnerable species and ecosystems.

True progress means integrating environmental sustainability with economic development—not prioritizing one at the expense of the other. I urge the government to strengthen, not weaken, Ontario’s species protection framework by ensuring science remains the guiding principle and by maintaining rigorous, transparent approval processes that hold all project proponents accountable to the highest environmental standards.