The creation of a "Species…

The creation of a "Species at Risk Conservation Trust" to allow municipalities or other infrastructure developers the option to pay a charge in lieu of completing certain on-the-ground activities required by the act is a disgusting way of skipping regulations that have been put in place for the protection of our SAR species.

With these changes, developers (Aka friends of Doug Ford) will be able to pay-in-leu of needing to conduct on the ground surveys, which provide several jobs for ecologists such as myself. So yet another change that will lead to the loss of jobs within Ontario, specifically in the environmental field.

If "the price for the payment-in-lieu (i.e. regulatory charge) will be within the range of costs that a client would have otherwise incurred through meeting the species-based conditions of an authorization" then there would be absolutely no reason for developers to have to take the extra time and risk what these current on-the-ground monitoring requirements would uncover in order for them to be approved for development. Therefore, I believe that no developer/client would be choosing to take the path of conducting these on-the-ground surveys, therefore the protection of our SAR species would be compromised.

Furthermore, looking at if SAR species have higher and more stable populations in other geographical areas should NOT be a deciding factor in if they deserve protection under the Act. Just because they are not in danger in other areas, does not mean that we don't need to protect them in others. That is ridiculously short-sighted. EVERY species plays a vital role in the ecosystem, if we stop protecting ones that have populations elsewhere, we will continue on a slippery slope to losing many, if not all, eventually.

Therefore, I am STRONGLY against the proposed changes to the Ontario Endangered Species Act as proposed by the current provincial government that will destroy our species and the jobs that are there to protect them.