Developing government response statements for nine species at risk under the Endangered Species Act, 2007

Decision details

Ontario provides protections for species at risk and their habitats under the Endangered Species Act. This commitment to conserve the province’s rich biodiversity by protecting and recovering species at risk and their habitats is also part of the government’s Made-in-Ontario Environment Plan, which provides a roadmap to protecting the province’s land, air and water.

As required by the Act, the province has published government response statements for nine species at risk. Government response statements are species-specific policies that identify and prioritize the actions the government intends to lead and support to protect and recover these species.

These statements provide policy direction to government and partners about what should be done to recover each of these species at risk:

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

As a result of the input received through consultation, and from provincial ministries and the federal government, minor modifications were made to the proposed versions to:

• improve clarity
• better describe the intent or importance of specific action

Comments received

• 11 received through the registry
• 0 received by mail
• 11 received by email

Comments received via the registry that were approved for publishing are available in the Bulletin supporting materials section below.

Effects of consultation

Overall, comments were supportive of the recovery goals and actions included in the GRS. The majority of comments provided recommendations on:

• characterizing approaches to recovery
• describing biological information on the species

Comments supported continued preservation of these species and suggested clarifying the importance or intent of specific actions for individual species.

In response to comments received, we made the following revisions to the final government response statements:

• provided further introductory contextual information
• refined some actions to better clarify and reflect intent
• revised some actions to better reflect their relative priority