The proposed Species at Risk…

The proposed Species at Risk Conservation Trust is a detour for developers and friends of the Government around the present requirement that specific protections be implemented on any lands where a species has been found to be endangered. It has no more moral or practical value in protecting species at risk in a particular local habitat than the “cash in lieu of parking” provisions of certain municipalities have in restraining inappropriate urban development and providing adequate parking in a downtown neighbourhood. The Conservation Trust does nothing for endangered species in particular habitats; It merely allows developers to rape them in exchange for hush money.

The proposed legislation should be amended on this point to require a sizeable, automatic payment (at least $10,000 per acre for each exemption requested) into the Conservation Trust by developers when filing a request for an exemption from local endangered species protection requirements. In such cases the developer should also be required to submit to a local panel of scientists, ecologists and community leaders for approval a binding, viable mitigation plan, showing measures to be taken by the developer to reduce local species’ endangerment. An example of such arrangements might be the maintenance of protected open stream flow and marshland within parks if a large housing development is to be created in the area, and the provision of separate storm and sanitary sewers draining outside of the protected area. Even after local approval, such developer exemptions should be subject to heavy punitive fines if the required mitigation plan is not properly implemented, or an endangered species is subsequently found to have been locally exterminated.