This new act will be…

This new act will be detrimental to the wildlife of Ontario. By removing the need to obtain permits before building, the Ford government is effectively giving developers permission to do whatever they want with the land, regardless of any negative effects it will have on the ecosystem (as they only require permission from the government in order to build, and it is in the government's best interest to let them). Additionally, the new definition of "habitat" is misleading, as it implies that only the area immediately surrounding a plant, or the dwelling of an animal is its habitat. This is not true. A habitat includes the entire natural area where an animal lives. An animal will not spend its entire life in a single burrow, it needs to explore the natural environment to find food and reproduce (not to mention the many, many species of animal which live transiently, such as migratory birds), and plants need the nutrients from the surrounding environment to thrive, not just the area of dirt which their roots occupy. This change in definition will allow developers to legally destroy more area in which threatened animals reside, and will effectively kill off many of these animals, as they will no longer have any actual habitat left to reside in outside of their burrows.
On top of this, by allowing the government to pick and choose which species are considered endangered, this opens the door to extortion and corruption. Any developer which offers the government enough money will be able to build on any plot of land they wish, as even if this area is protected due to having endangered species living within it, the government could simply decide that those species are no longer endangered, therefore they no longer have any legal protection. In short, this act will effectively allow the government to develop any land they wish for the sake of profit at the expense of the animals, plants, and ultimately people that live in Ontario.