To Whom It May Concern, I…

To Whom It May Concern,

I am a resident of Ontario and am deeply concerned about the suggested proposal for the Endangered Species Act, 2007, and the Species Conservation Act, 2025. My two main concerns are as follows:

1. The proposal explicitly weakens the efficacy of the Species Conservation Act, including narrowing the criteria for protections and definition of habitat, lessening the importance of species protection and conservation in relation to economic development, and eliminates the Species Conservation Action Agency.
2. The proposal removes the ability to establish an advisory committee, allows projects to proceed before receiving approval for permits, limits First Nations’ and other interested groups’ involvement in the decision-making process, and grants the government the ability to override the independent Committee on the Status of Species at Risk.

These issues together create an alarming new framework that values short-term construction activities and profit over environmental well-being and public oversight. Frankly, it is exhausting and deplorable to consider reducing environmental protections amid the human-made climate catastrophe we are currently enduring. Environmental concerns are ALWAYS of importance and should not be haphazardly ignored for the sake of profit or based on the opinions of government members without environmental expertise. I cannot stress this enough; we cannot have a functioning sustainable economy without supporting sustainable environmental actions.

Furthermore, the proposals are anti-democratic and have severe impacts on Aboriginal and Treaty rights. Proceeding with a 'construction-first, permit-later' approach severely limits government oversight and input into the project, and thus also the opportunities for First Nations to be consulted and accommodated in the process. There also does not appear to be any explicit mechanism of oversight to ensure that First Nations will be able to participate in the decision-making process. Moreover, First Nations and other interested groups (such as environmental groups and municipalities) will be severely limited in their ability to launch any challenges against the government. The standards for remediation for First Nations would become significantly more limited, and there would be little in the way for interested groups to challenge this legislation in court. Canada has barely begun to take the actions needed to achieve meaningful reconciliation with First Nations, and these proposals appear to move backward on the progress made thus far. Moreover, the anti-democratic undertones and inability for public involvement are deeply troubling and have no place in our legislation.

To conclude, I strongly oppose these proposals and hope the government chooses to either seriously amend or scrap these proposals.

Thank you for your time, and take care.