The proposed changes to…

The proposed changes to Ontario's Endangered Species Act will have a decidedly negative impact upon the survival of numerous species in this province, but I don't need to tell you that. Clearly, changes that include delaying and allowing ministerial interference in the species listing process, removing automatic protections for newly-listed species, allowing developers to pay a fine rather than undertaking recovery or mitigation actions, and reducing the role of independent science in species assessments are not designed to improve, or maintain, protections for species at risk. They blatantly delay, remove, and weaken these protections. The goal, we can easily infer, is not to improve the Endangered Species Act but rather to weaken it to remove "red tape" and increase activities that harm the species in question.

Therefore, rather than explaining how the proposed changes fail species, I would like to comment on why it is important that we have legislation to protect these species in the first place.

Ontario's wildlife is the heart of our province. It is not an "inconvenience" to developers. We rely on wildlife for resources, food, essential services, economic development, and recreation without which Ontario would not be a suitable place to live. As all of us learned when we were young, the natural world exists in a balance where actions that are detrimental to certain species can have negative repercussions across the entire system.

Ontario's current species at risk are the canaries in the coal mine of environmentally destructive practises. They are not to be protected simply because there is inherent value in allowing the threatened Blanding's Turtle to survive in our world (although that should be reason enough), but also because the decline of the Blanding's Turtle is a sign of general environmental destruction that is impacting other species and the overall system. If the Blanding's Turtle is extirpated from Ontario, it will be because we have lost wetlands that also provided flood resilience, purified water, and allowed our fish populations to reproduce. It will be because we allowed the expansion of roads through natural areas, increasing wildlife-related accidents that negatively impact both humans and a wide range of our province's animals. It will be because our lifestyle and laws are not in line with what it takes to live responsibly and sustainably within our environment.

Each time habitat is protected for an at-risk species, it is protected for every species that uses or benefits from it - and that includes humans. We should be grateful to the Endangered Species Act for mandating that development and other activities are not able to entirely destroy the environment upon which we depend. We should also be grateful that they allow us the possibility to walk through this province with our children and find a Blanding's Turtle basking in a wetland, something that adds value to the lives of all who experience it.

Ontario is a wonderful place not in spite of our environment but because of it. It is time the current government realized that. We must have laws that protect the natural features of this province for the benefit of all Ontarians, rather than exploit and exterminate them for the benefit of a few wealthy developers. The proposed changes to the Endangered Species Act do the latter, and I strongly oppose them.