Public Input Coordinator…

Public Input Coordinator
Species Conservation Policy Branch
300 Water Street
Floor 5N
Peterborough ON K9J 3C7
Canada

Submitted via EBR: ero.ontario.ca

Forest Sector Requires Permanent Regulation Followed by Workable Species at Risk Policy After 10th Year Review of the Endangered Species Act

To Whom it May Concern:

As a Registered Professional Forester, conservationist, and outdoorsman, thank you for the opportunity to comment on the 10th Year Review of Ontario’s Endangered Species Act: Discussion Paper, ERO number 013-4143. I’m glad for the opportunity to work with your government to improve the effectiveness of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and ensure a balanced approach between a healthy environment and a healthy economy.

The Endangered Species Act (ESA) has proven to be very difficult to apply to forestry, in particular because it does not seek to achieve balance through forest management; instead it requires individual threatened or endangered species to be protected at the expense of all other forest management outcomes (including at the expense of other species) at the Landscape scale as well as the stand and site scale. Many attempts by government over the last few years have failed to find a way to make the ESA work for forestry without creating serious legal risk, crushing regulatory burden, and catastrophic wood supply reductions. Despite involving policy makers, lawyers, forest practitioners and stakeholders, the only implementable solution has come through the use of an ESA Section 55 Regulation. That is why the sector is currently operating under its third ESA Section 55 Regulation, which expires next year.

The most important action the government must take is a permanent recognition of the Crown Forest Sustainability Act (CFSA) as an equivalent process to the Endangered Species Act (ESA); through a permanent Section 55 Regulation. The CFSA already provides landscape, stand, and site-level direction for managing, conserving, and protecting species at risk. Having two acts attempting to accomplish the same outcome represents the single greatest piece of red tape and duplication to this sector and renders both processes unachievable if implemented simultaneously. The Section 55 Regulation does not 'exempt' forest managers from providing for species at risk; it merely achieves these protections in a different, more efficient, practical and balanced way. The CFSA already provides landscape, stand, and site-level direction for managing, conserving, and protecting species at risk. By implementing the CFSA this provides a more holistic and all-encompassing approach where all aspects of a healthy ecosystem are accounted for.

Once this essential first step has been accomplished, we must also ensure the following requirements be embedded in a new, modernized ESA:
1. Implement a permanent ESA Section 55 regulatory exemption for the forest sector that recognizes the CSFA as an equivalent legal tool for implementing species at risk protections Cumulative impact of all species at risk policy on a healthy economy.
2. Continue to manage for at-risk species through the CFSA, in balance with other social, economic and environmental objectives- which allows for a balanced landscape management approach.
3. Ensure species prescriptions are developed with input from forest practitioners, affected stakeholders and rights holders, to ensure they are workable.
4. Socio-economic impact analysis must be completed and shared with impacted stakeholders and First Nations prior to any species at risk policy being implemented.

Furthermore; also of extreme concern is role of the Federal Government and potential negotiations with Ontario on Conservation Agreements. For example, a MNRF socio-economic analysis determined that up to 2800 jobs could be lost and 8 mills could close as a result of the province meeting the federal disturbance thresholds for caribou. It is our expectation that Ontario will consult with affected stakeholders well in advance of any draft and will not enter into a Conservation Agreement with the Federal Government that will result in lost jobs and lost opportunity.

In order to avoid serious socio-economic impacts, Ontario needs permanent recognition that the CFSA is an equivalent process to the ESA, while developing workable species at risk policy, and sending a strong message to the Federal government that Ontario will manage our own resources.

Thank you for the opportunity to work with your government to improve the effectiveness of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and ensure a balanced approach between a healthy environment and a healthy economy.

Kind Regards.