Good day, The changes being…

Good day,

The changes being planned to the Ontario Endangered Species Act are unwise and short-sighted. Here are the reasons why the proposed changes are not the right path to take.

- Ontario Specied at Risk often require very specific and long-standing habitat. Take salamanders for example. These vulnerable creatures need vernal pools that are hard to come by in order to reproduce. Allowing development in these areas is a bad idea and could completely decimate our amphibian populations. Allowing companies to simply pay more money for "mitigation" causes is NOT helpful - you cannot simply recreate specific and delicate ecosystems without disrupting other ecosystems.

- Do not open more hunting/collection permits to at risk species. This is a bad plan as it directly harms already low population counts and can disrupt, again, highly delicate ecosystem balances.

- Furthermore, we always need to protect species at risk in our province EVEN if population counts are high in other provinces. Species have various habitats that, if one is not protected, their range will narrow and effectively destroy overall populations.

Obliterating the health of our wilderness directly influences citizen's mental and physical wellbeing, our water systems and our ability to draw clean well-water, and Ontario's ability to create sustainable ecological tourism, which is a negative economic choice.

All in all, we need to protect our species. We cannot be greedy. Ontario must have other ways to open up business and econmic growth without destroying our natural heritage and our beautiful environments. The plans that are being made are short-sighted, uneducated, and (I can assure you) is not supported by the vast majority of all conservationists in Canada.

Do better for our ecology, or animals, and for the province, and do not go forward with these changes.