The watering down of…

The watering down of environmental legislation does little to improve the lives of Ontarians. Eroding the "checks and balances" of requiring permits for already struggling species (and their habitat) shows how little this government cares or understands the environment and how it's own ministries work.

The registration first approach is not effective, as evident by the poor use of the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) registration process for development.

The additional enforcement tools (whatever they may be), often only make the best of a bad situation. It is only negotiations on how to deal with an issue once the damage has already been done. This is actually more costly and time consuming as it often requires additional reports, plans and further follow-up. Not to mention holding up development processes that have already begun. Prevention through the education, pre consultation and permitting process yields much higher compliance rates than enforcement after the fact.

The province of Ontario can, and should do better.