Re: City of Kenora Request…

Re: City of Kenora Request for Permanent Recognition of the CFSA as an Equivalent Process to ESA by Adopting a Section 55 Regulation into the ESA; Response to ERO Number 013-5033

Premier Ford, Minister Phillips, and Minister Yakabuski,

On behalf of the City of Kenora, thank you for the opportunity to comment on the 10th Year Review of Ontario’s Endangered Species Act: Proposed changes, ERO number 013-5033. We are eager proponents of efforts to modernize and improve the effectiveness of the Endangered Species Act (ESA). We are optimistic that this will result in improved outcomes for species at risk while ensuring Ontario is a place to grow our renewable forest sector, unleash its full potential and provide good-paying jobs for our people. However, the vagueness of the proposed changes does not provide necessary business certainty.

The 10th year review of the provincial Endangered Species Act (ESA) provides government with a rare opportunity to chart a course for the next decade and beyond. Political decisions on this will have far-reaching social, economic, and environmental impacts for generations to come. Therefore, the most important action the government must take remains permanent recognition of the Crown Forest Sustainability Act (CFSA) as an equivalent process to the Endangered Species Act (ESA) through Section 55. The CFSA already provides landscape, stand, and site-level direction for managing, conserving, and protecting species at risk. Having two acts attempting to accomplish the same outcome represents the single greatest piece of red tape and duplication to this sector.

This is an essential first step to be accomplished in your Government’s legislative changes to the ESA. However, the proposed changes indicate that a Section 18 Regulation will be the authorization process for forestry, instead of a Section 55 Regulation. For the past 10 years, we have consistently asked for a permanent Section 55 Regulation as the authorization process for the forest sector. The former government recognized that the CFSA and the ESA cannot be harmonized and provided a workable, temporary solution that was defended in court. We are asking the Ford Government to take this workable, temporary solution and make it permanent.

We are asking that you revise the proposed legislative ESA changes to acknowledge that Section 55 will be the authorization mechanism for forest operations on Crown lands. Instead, the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP) appears to be pursuing a revised section 18 “harmonization” instrument which is at odds with our request. This bold move, like your support for other industries and activities with the Species at Risk Conservation Trust, would send a positive message to the forest sector and the City of Kenora for which the forestry industry is a major economic driver.

In addition to this critical revision, it also remains necessary to ensure the following requirements be embedded in a new, modernized ESA:
1. Consideration of climate change on habitat in all species at risk policy
2. Cumulative impact of all species at risk policy on a healthy economy
3. Socio-economic impact analysis must be completed and shared with impacted stakeholders and First Nations prior to any species at risk policy being implemented

The sector will continue to operate under the CFSA which, by law, requires, forestry operations to follow an approved forest management plan. Guides delivered under the CFSA include operational prescriptions and conditions, which may include reserves, modified operations, or specific conditions on road use and construction in the area near a species at risk and their habitat.

Since the establishment of the ESA, the City of Kenora has supported efforts to drive long-term certainty within Ontario’s forest sector so as to create sustainable northern and rural communities. In order to avoid catastrophic socio-economic impacts, we need permanent, legislative recognition that the CFSA is an equivalent process to the ESA, while developing workable species at risk policy. It is our expectation that these required changes will be made and adopted into the new ESA legislation that you are passing.

We would be happy to meet with you at your earliest convenience to discuss the best path forward to ensuring positive outcomes for species at risk while keeping people in this province working.