Ontario Nature Blog

Ontario Nature has previously documented and advocated against the extensive changes to the Endangered Species Act (the Act) and its impact on Ontario’s most vulnerable species, and has asked members and supporters to sign now completed Action Alerts. It can be difficult to keep track of all these regulatory changes that weaken protections for species ...

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Yet again, the people of Ontario are witnessing an attempt by the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP) to weaken protections for the province’s species at risk. If approved, proposed changes to “streamline” several regulations under the Endangered Species Act, 2007 (ESA) will create new loopholes to harm species at risk and their habitats, ...

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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 ...

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When Ontario’s Endangered Species Act (ESA) was brought into force in 2007, the Ministry of Natural Resources granted a one-year exemption to the forestry industry on the premise that industry needed time to develop a compliance framework. Since then, the forestry industry has claimed that the provincial Crown Forest Sustainability Act (CFSA), under which it ...

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The Government of Ontario’s new Forest Sector Strategy has been portrayed as a gift to the people of northern and rural Ontario. It claims to herald a “better quality of life”, secure “a prosperous future”, and of course, “end unnecessary duplication”. Instead, it’s another bulldozer for the Premier to pave the way for sweeping changes ...

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