{"id":23672,"date":"2019-04-26T15:03:20","date_gmt":"2019-04-26T19:03:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=23672"},"modified":"2019-04-26T15:03:28","modified_gmt":"2019-04-26T19:03:28","slug":"greenbelt-coalition-decries-proposed-changes-to-endangered-species-legislation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/greenbelt-coalition-decries-proposed-changes-to-endangered-species-legislation\/","title":{"rendered":"Greenbelt Coalition decries proposed changes to endangered species legislation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It is becoming a\npattern with this government to hear, once again, that Ontario\u2019s most sensitive\nand valuable environments are being offered to the highest bidder. \u2018Open for\nbusiness\u2019 now also means trading protection for species at risk to anyone\nwilling to pay the price. A strong and prosperous Ontario has a healthy and\nbountiful natural environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By weakening and\noutright removing protections in exchange for money this government weakens our\nprovince and sells our natural heritage out from under us. This move is\nparticularly shocking given the global epidemic of species loss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ontario\u2019s Endangered\nSpecies Act was already insufficient. This proposal effectively removes the\nsmall safety net species at risk had remaining.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like Bill 66, the\nprocess to determine which regulations can be avoided are taken out of the\npublic eye and at the discretion of the Minister. Local habitats could be under\nthreat without any notification or public input opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government will\nestablish a second set of rules for those that are able to pay more. Instead of\nfollowing the rules everyone else has to, sprawl developers, aggregate\ncompanies, even our own municipalities can just pay their way out of the\nprocess, regardless of whether it undermines Ontario\u2019s environmental integrity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet again we are\nforced to point out to this government that this proposal is not needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Simcoe County we\nhave a surplus of land available for houses and employment. We do not need to\nsacrifice our forests, wetlands and shorelines for more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who does this\nbenefit?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dredging wetlands\nthat prevent flooding or paving over forests that purify our air destroys\nhighly effective, low-cost natural solutions to climate change. The profit\ngained by developers and the sum paid to the government cannot match the\nongoing value these natural ecosystems provide to our communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simcoe County has a\nwealth of globally, provincially, and locally significant wetlands and\nshorelines.  We are home to Ontario\u2019s largest municipally owned forest\nsystem. Our area is also home to over 60 species that are deemed vulnerable,\nthreatened, or endangered.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which of these will\nbe the first to be offered up to the highest bidder?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are particularly\nconcerned with proposals that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Would allow\nindustry, municipalities, and developers to bypass rules and regulations within\nthe Act for a price;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Would allow the\nMinister to avoid consulting with experts for species at risk, even if the\nsuspension of the regulations would, \u201clikely jeopardize the survival of the\nspecies in Ontario\u201d;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Would allow the\nMinister to avoid consulting or even notifying the public if they decide to\nsuspend regulations within the Act;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Would suspend the\nprotections for locally threatened species as long as the species is \u201chealthy\u201d\noutside of Ontario. This would lead to extirpation and further jeopardize local\necosystems;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 New additions to\nthe Species at Risk list would take longer to get protection (from 3 months to\na proposed 12 months). At a Minister\u2019s request the committee that adds new\nspecies may be asked to re-evaluate the listing, which would only lengthen the\ntime that the species and their habitat would be vulnerable to development and\nother damaging activities;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Would no longer\nissue stop work order permits on damaging activities for newly listed species\nor their habitat for up to one year of listing. This means that damaging\nactivities, such as mining, excavation etc., would be allowed to continue,\nunfettered, as the new species\u2019 habitat and species protections are reviewed by\ncommittee<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Margaret\nProphet<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simcoe\nCounty Greenbelt Coalition<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is becoming a pattern with this government to hear, once again, that Ontario\u2019s most sensitive and valuable environments are being offered to the highest bidder. \u2018Open for business\u2019 now also means trading protection for species at risk to anyone willing to pay the price. A strong and prosperous Ontario has a healthy and bountiful […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-letters-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-69O","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-23 10:55:24","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23672\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}