WE STRONGLY OBJECT TO THE…

WE STRONGLY OBJECT TO THE REGRESSIVE NATURE OF BILL 108.

We believe that endangered species must be protected, that

--developers must NOT be allowed to pay-to-proceed to damage or destroy significant habitat and species;

--that decision making must be made by people with the appropriate scientific training.

When lobbying by for-profit land and development speculators informs government thinking and is allowed to overturn the environmental protection that reflects decades-long commonly held values of the electorate, democracy has failed.

An article in last week’s Guardian U.K. (10 May, 2018) highlights a new United Nations Global Assessment Report that indicates that “natural ecosystems have lost about half their area and that a million species are at risk of extinction.”

The report was compiled over three years by a team of more than 450 scientists and diplomats and compiled 15,000academic studies and reports. The chair of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (Ibpes), Robert Watson has given this stark warning:

“The health of the ecosystems on which we and other species depend is deteriorating more rapidly than ever. We are eroding the very foundations of economies, livelihoods, food security, health and quality of life worldwide”. It is not acceptable that Ontario should be out of step with international thinking on species preservation. Ontario’s proposed dangerous erosion of environmental protection represents only the narrow interests of the few and jeopardizes the survival of our own and other species.