Disaster. Bill 5 is the…

Disaster. Bill 5 is the latest assault on Ontario's environment and continues the premier's sole legacy- that of destroying the already weak legal protections for Ontario's environment. The premier's government has surgically and systematically cut through every environmental law that were meant to prevent environmental destruction. This cutting of environmental legislation has done nothing to improve the lives of Ontarians, and serves to benefit only a handful of Ontario's richest and most powerful (developers, construction companies, mining companies, etc...) The proposed changes to the Endangered Species Act and the eventual Species Conservation Act will significantly harm Ontario's most at-risk species. Endangered species are not red tape and should not be treated as such. Corporations, developers, and industry should be held accountable, not be given a green light to do whatever they want whenever they want to. By shifting to a registration-first approach, the Ontario government is saying that major corporations have this unmitigated green light for environmental destruction. The government is also planning to give itself ultimate discretion on what species should be protected- regardless of what the science says. The Ontario government knows that this bill is disastrous for the environment, and they don't care. The Endangered Species Act should not be amended as outlined in this posting, and the proposed Species Conservation Act should be immediately withdrawn. Anything less is a direct disregard for our rights as Canadian citizens to a healthy environment