I am most concerned that the…

I am most concerned that the 42 aquatic species and migratory bird species will no longer be protected, and I feel that the rationale that the Species at Risk Act, the Fisheries Act, and the Migratory Birds Convention Act, 1994 still apply to them and will protect them is not a strong reason. There are significant gaps in all of these pieces of legislation that will result in the decline of these 42 species. For example, there is Piping Plover critical habitat in Ontario that is not protected by the federal Species at Risk Act, so once you remove the protections of them through the Endangered Species Act, they won't be protected unless they are on federal lands. They also can be protected through parks, but the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks is also trying to sell Wasaga Beach Provincial Park lands where their most productive population is. If both these things happen, it is very likely that Piping Plover will be extirpated from Ontario. Furthermore, the province can not control what the federal government may do to any of these pieces of legislation in the future. Reducing the protections for species at risk on the basis that the federal government will protect them is not a fair justification, because if the federal government reduces protections as well then none of these species will be protected in Ontario. As the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks you have a duty to protect species at risk in Ontario, regardless of what the federal government is doing to protect them. And most importantly, many species at risk are keystone species, meaning that if you lose them in the ecosystem, then it will have cascading effects on the ecosystem resulting in losses of more species and decreased biodiversity. Low biodiversity further depletes the ecosystem services that we rely on. For example, if we lose a fish/mussel species in a river, this can impact the foodweb resulting in lower numbers of species in the river. This can lead to poor water quality. Once we have poor water quality, now we have to spend more money on creating water treatment plants, costing the province millions if not billions of dollars. It is in our best interest to preserve biodiversity for the long term. Please do not take away the Endangered Species Act, replacing it with the weak and insignificant Species Conservation Act.