Our Group is very concerned…

Our Group is very concerned that your review will result an easing of the restrictions pertaining to endangered species that currently apply to licensing of aggregate pits and quarries in Ontario on lands that are often inhabited by species at risk. Even the precautions that are currently required are too often not abided by, and government oversight is inadequate or absent. The damage done to the ecology and local environments are devastating and irremediable for many generations, if at all.

It appears that your administration is forging ahead with greasing the skids for industrial development in sensitive areas while ignoring concepts like 'Full Cost Accounting' (FCA) and 'Social License'. Species at risk require careful and prudent protections, and the cost of such protections, and concomitant reparations and compensations, need to be borne by those entities that are profiting from their activities, and be required as part of any business plan submitted with an application for development.
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FCA is accounting which recognizes ALL economic, environmental, health, and social costs of an action or decision.
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A full cost accounting regime is one in which costs externalized onto society, ecosystems, or individual citizens via industries are reliably traced back to, and accounted for as liabilities of, the entity that causes the harm.
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Consultations with affected communities are cursory and often appear to be insincere and ultimately ineffectual.

This should not happen with a government "for the people".

Thank you for considering our views.