Finalizing seven recovery strategies for nine species at risk and initiating engagement on species-specific polices (government response statements)

Species at risk in Ontario

Ontario is committed to protecting and recovering our province’s species at risk and their habitats, as outlined in our draft Made-in-Ontario Environment Plan to protect our air, land and water, address litter and waste, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and help communities and families prepare for climate change.

In Ontario, once a species is listed as endangered or threatened, there is a process for gathering information and developing policy to support the protection and recovery of each species.

First, we engage individuals and organizations outside of government with expertise on the species to write recovery strategies. These documents form the foundation of scientific advice to government and can include knowledge from the public, stakeholders and Indigenous communities and organizations.

Once recovery strategies are finalized, we develop a government response statement for each recovery strategy. Each government response statement is a species-specific policy that includes:

• the provincial goal for the recovery of the species
• a summary of the prioritized actions we intend to lead and support in response to the associated recovery strategy

Finalized recovery strategies

We finalized seven recovery strategies for the following nine species:

• Blanding's Turtle
• Spiny Softshell
• Spotted Turtle
• Eastern Whip-poor-will
• Northern Bobwhite
• White Wood Aster
• three bat species: Little Brown Myotis, Northern Myotis, Tri-colored Bat

Early engagement on government response statements

We invite you to review the advice in the final recovery strategies and provide early input to inform draft government response statements. Between December 5, 2019 and January 6, 2020, you can complete these surveys or email us at recovery.planning@ontario.ca with your input.

• survey for Blanding`s Turtle
• survey for Spiny Softshell
• survey for Spotted Turtle
• survey for Eastern Whip-poor-will
• survey for Northern Bobwhite
• survey for White Wood Aster
• survey for three bat species: Little Brown Myotis, Northern Myotis, Tri-colored Bat

We will use your feedback, along with the recovery strategies, to develop draft government response statements. We anticipate posting the draft government response statements on the Environmental Registry for consultation in spring 2020.