North Pickering Community Management Inc. - Amendment to a permit issued under the Endangered Species Act

On June 7, 2020, the Minister issued a permit amendment to North Pickering Community Management Inc. with respect to Butternut. The permit authorizes the company to remove four additional Butternuts for its project so it can develop:

• water and wastewater infrastructure
• transit systems
• service facilities

The overall benefit plan in the original permit is substantial enough to account for the additional impacts to the four Category 2 Butternut trees, while still providing a net benefit to the species.

This project is being carried out within the vicinity of Whitevale Road in Pickering, Regional Municipality of Durham, Ontario

With this amendment included, the permit authorizes North Pickering Community Management Inc. to:

• remove two Category 3 Butternut trees
• remove fourteen Category 2 Butternut trees
• harm four Category 3 Butternut trees
• harm twelve Category 2 Butternut trees
• destroy up to one hectare of Butternut habitat

The Endangered Species Act (ESA) provides the authority for the Minister to amend a permit issued under 17(2)(c) of the Act with the consent of the permit holder. However, the Minister must believe that he or she would have been authorized to issue the permit under clause 17(2)(c) in its amended form.

The permit, as amended, will continue to meet the three legal tests as described below for Butternut:

Actions to minimize adverse effects to species

The permit requires North Pickering Community Management Inc. to:

• implement Butternut protection measures to avoid impacts to off-site Butternut trees
• retain a qualified professional to carry out conditions of the permit

Actions to achieve an overall benefit to species

The permit requires North Pickering Community Management Inc. to:

• archive two Butternut trees that demonstrate resistance to the Butternut canker disease
• expand an existing Butternut archive area to increase the provincial capacity to archive Butternuts
• conduct landowner communications to identify archivable Butternut trees across central and western Ontario

Reasonable alternatives

Reasonable alternatives were considered that would not adversely affect Butternut, such as:

• not proceeding with the proposed development project
• altering project design so that development occurs at an alternate location

Other information

Butternut is listed on the Species at Risk in Ontario List as Endangered.

We have published a government response statement under section 12.1 of the Endangered Species Act, 2007 with respect to Butternut.

The Butternut government response statement specifies actions, such as:

• protecting Butternut trees and their habitat through the
• improving knowledge of their distribution across the province
• improving species knowledge by research
• collecting genetic material from Butternut trees that may contribute to the recovery of the species

These actions are supported in the permit.

A copy of the GRS for Butternut is available at: https://www.ontario.ca/page/butternut-government-response-statement