Ontario repeals Endangered Species Act as new law takes effect
Under the new system, some species, particularly migratory birds and aquatic life, will have to rely instead on federal protections through Canada’s Species at Risk Act.
Ontario is making a major change to how endangered species are protected, repealing the long-standing Endangered Species Act and replacing it with a new Species Conservation Act.
The province says the changes are meant to speed up development and streamline approvals, arguing the previous system could delay housing, infrastructure, and resource projects.
The Species Conservation Act, proposed under Bill 5, went into effect last year, but the repeal of the Endangered Species Act is only coming into force now.
“Habitat for a species under the old Endangered Species Act was basically about life processes ... and now it's being reduced to den and nest in areas immediately surrounding them,” Rachel Plotkin, Boreal Project Manager for the David Suzuki Foundation, tells The Weather Network.
This shift in defining habitat could have real consequences that could affect species like caribou that depend on larger ecosystems to survive.
Plotkin says ecosystems play a role in how landscapes respond to weather because healthy forests mitigate flood risk and landslides, while regulating the climate and protecting against natural disasters.
Under the new system, some species, particularly migratory birds and aquatic life, will have to rely instead on federal protections through Canada’s Species at Risk Act.
Plotkin says that there is a way to balance prosperity and maintain a healthy functioning ecosystem, but the public needs to speak up.
“We just have to have the pressure on both industry and government to make the commitment that the footprint of industrial resource extraction activities isn't perpetually expanding. We need to take wildlife habitat needs into consideration,” she says.
Header image: File photo via Getty Images.