I have thoroughly reviewed…

I have thoroughly reviewed the proposed changes to the SAR Act. In your document you assert that with these proposed changes that you will "modernize and improve the effectiveness of the act and improve outcomes for species at risk."

Based on my extensive personal experience in researching species at risk and speaking with SAR scientists, field researchers, First Nations elders and others, I come to the conclusions that overall the changes you are proposing are meant to benefit business interests at the expense of SAR and their critical habitats.

The proposed changes are shifting the determination/protection of SAR and their habitat needs into the political realm, into the hands of the minister. These are species that are already in jeopardy. When ill we go to doctors because they are the people who have the best training to ensure that we get well again. Scientists are the people best trained to ensure the survival of species and their habitat. Not politicians.

Protecting biodiversity (species and habitat), maintaining healthy ecosystems means protecting the very fabric of life that we all depend on. Our future, our economy, our health depends on getting this right. Once we lose a species it is very costly and difficult to get it back. Once we wreck critical habitat it is very costly to get it back.

Please reconsider the proposed changes. A very concerned taxpayer.