© Lora Denis
As the June 2 provincial election approaches, affordable housing is understandably emerging as a lightning-rod issue, with rents and purchase prices soaring. Unfortunately and unfairly, the issue is being used to justify further encroachment by highways and sprawl development on natural areas and farmland. Can we meet the housing needs of current and future Ontarians ...
February 24, 2022–Anne Bell
Advocacy•Campaigns•Protected Places•Species at Risk•Stewardship and restoration
On June 2, 2022, Ontarians will head to the polls to elect our next provincial government. As citizens, we have a responsibility to ensure that nature conservation is a major election issue. Candidates and political leaders must hear from all Ontarians demanding clear commitments and action plans to effectively address ongoing biodiversity loss and the ...
Point Pelee National Park, Marsh boardwalk © Daveynin CC BY 2.0
February 2, 2022 marks the fiftieth anniversary of World Wetlands Day. This annual event is intended to raise awareness about wetlands to reverse their ongoing decline. Alarmingly, almost 90 percent of Earth’s wetlands have been degraded since the 1700s. This fact mirrors the historic wetland loss we’ve witnessed in Ontario. South of the shield, the ...
December 2, 2021–Anne Bell
Habitat•Land-use planning•Ontario Nature•Species at Risk•Stewardship and restoration
Blanding's turtle, threatened © David Allen CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
The Auditor General of Ontario’s report, Protecting and Recovering Species at Risk, is not reading for the faint of heart. Released on November 22, 2021 the audit sets out in excruciating detail the Government of Ontario’s abject failure to exercise its duty to protect the province’s most vulnerable plants and animals. The review spans the ...
October 26, 2021–Anne Bell
Conservation News•Indigenous Relations•Ontario Nature•Species at Risk•Wetlands
Black ash habitat © Eli Sagor CC BY-NC 2.0
In 2019 the Government of Ontario rammed through amendments to our Endangered Species Act (ESA), decimating protections for the province’s most imperiled plants and animals. Among the changes was a new power allowing the government to override automatic protections for newly listed threatened and endangered species, and their habitats. The Ministry of Environment, Conservation and ...