The Ontario government is…

The Ontario government is trading away our environment and species at risk to line the pockets of the wealthiest corporations by further eroding species at risk protections. The ESA should not be repealed for a weaker SCA. In fact, the ESA should be strengthened. Since 2019 the government has repeatedly weakened environmental legislation. The ESA should be reverted to its original 2007 version. The problems with the ESA were in its implementation. Implementation issues were exacerbated by the government's cutting of employees in charge of its administration, and lack of overall enforcement of the provisions under the ESA. The SCA removes protection for species at risk, reduces the number of protected species, removes ALL provisions for species recovery, and grants the minister ultimate discretion over what species receive protections. All of this to build a highway 413 that is unnecessary. The minister should not be able to override scientific information to list a species for protection. The SCA should not pass. The ESA should not be repealed. The ESA should be strengthened in its implementation by providing the needed staffing, guidance, and funding so that it can actually function as intended rather than serve as a rubber-stamping process for environmental destruction