After 10 years of the SAR…

After 10 years of the SAR Act in Ontario.

I have observed a number of problems with the implementation of the Act.

The current regulations and laws appear to be focused on major developments and other process driven developments but have little effect on the vast majority of private lands and activities. This leaves the current regulatory regime ineffective at protecting listed species.

Due to the lack of research, I question if the current mitigation methods are working as few listed species populations have increased significantly in the past 10 years. New science-based mitigation or species introduction programs need to be implemented. By using the project HST and money spent on mitigation, a fund could be created for activities that would increase the population of listed species, not just regulation.

With few incentive or enforcement in the act, I believe the current law encourages private lands to do the wrong thing. If incentives were made available, many flora listed species could be planted on privates lands, increasing the population so the listed species would not be at risk anymore. A safe harbor regulation for private lands would be required for lands that listed species were reintroduced.
I thought the spirit of the act is to encourage the population growth of listed species but just to protect the existing listed species.

In the past 10 years, I have not seen any listed species population significantly increased, but I have seen many listed species added and overall population diminish.