Thank you for the…

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the proposed changes to the Endangered Species Act.

The proposal, as it stands, is reckless for a number of reasons:

1. The wording in the bill for increased responsibility wielded by “the minister”. This wording surrenders responsibility for listing endangered species from an arms-length, scientific body to a politician and is not acceptable. The opportunity for exploitation by interested parties is astronomical based on this absolute power settled in one person’s hands;

2. The extension of timelines makes the Act useless in protecting species at risk and allowing building proposals to go ahead before analysis of an endangered species is complete will lead to more extinctions;

3. The 2013 revision (O.Reg 242-08) allowing industry exemptions from the requirements of the act should be rolled back. More protection is needed, not less.

4. The United Nations has recently issued a report warning of the potential and very likely extinction of over one million species. This is not the time for Ontario to relax its standards on this important environmental initiative. Humans are at risk when their natural environment is at risk.

5. At the current time, and for many years Ontario has been economically prosperous even while maintaining the ESA in its current form. The proposed changes are attempting to do more than “find efficiencies”. The proposed changes will gut the ESA and will cause the extinction of many of our at-risk species.

Thank you for reading my comments and please do the right thing.