I am very concerned by the…

I am very concerned by the proposed changes to Ontario's Endangered Species Act. These changes will weaken protections for biological diversity, leading us to pass on an impoverished natural environment to our children and grand children.

As highlighted in the recent report from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, our planet is facing a biodiversity crisis. At a time like this governments around the world need to be looking to measures that will strengthen the protections for endangered species and improve the resources available for enforcement and habitat restoration. The proposed changes to Ontario's Endangered Species Act would instead weaken protections by providing ministerial discretion to loosen regulations and extend the timelines for development and implementation of species protection measures.

The most significant proposed changes to the Act are meant to make it easier for developers to ignore species at risk. This may produce short-term economic gains for a few, but will do irreversible damage to the natural systems that are our common heritage. I am shocked by the shortsightedness of the proposed changes. There is no need to pit economic development against environmental integrity. Indeed, in the long term the health of our economy depends on the health of our natural systems. The resilience of society and ecology are fundamentally interlinked, and humanity's own ability to adapt to environmental change is bolstered by sharing the land with a diversity of non-human organisms.

I urge legislators to reconsider the proposed changes and to instead move towards a strengthened set of protections for our species at risk. The kind of environment that will be inherited by all of our children rests these decisions.