The blandings turtle is considered endangered in Ontario. It is a welcome surprise to see these adult blandings turtles thriving. It is suggesting that conservation efforts may be working.mynewturtle/Supplied
Proposed legislation from Premier Doug Ford that he says would unleash Ontario’s economy by speeding up permits for mining and other projects would also dramatically weaken the province’s endangered-species legislation, environmentalists warn.
The changes, included in a bill unveiled last week and aimed at boosting growth in the face of U.S. tariffs, would give cabinet final say over which animals and plants are designated for protection, instead of a committee of experts, and narrow the legal definition of habitat essentially to an animal’s nest.
If passed, the legislation would do away with the existing permit process for most projects, replacing it with a registration-based system for activities that would destroy habitat or harm endangered species. But the government says registrants would have to follow regulations, which have yet to be drafted, or face “tough fines.”
The proposed changes would also scrap an alternative endangered-species permitting system the government first announced in 2019 – but which has yet to properly get off the ground – that environmentalists have long decried as “pay to slay.”
The policy allows developers to choose to put money into a conservation fund instead of taking steps on their own to protect a small list of species, including the Blanding’s turtle and eastern meadowlark.
The money was supposed to be used for research or the protection of habitat elsewhere. But six years later, the agency set up by the government to dole out this cash has yet to deliver any funding toward a single environmental project, despite collecting several million dollars.
The government says its suite of endangered-species changes will leave “robust” environmental protections in place while cutting red tape and delays for businesses. Business groups welcomed the changes.
Environmentalists argue the move amounts to a gutting of endangered-species protections that Ontario’s Progressive Conservative government had already watered down.
“Instead of pay to slay, now it’s just slay,” Tim Gray, executive director of Environmental Defence, said in an interview.
Other parts of the bill introduced last week include the power to designate “special economic zones” where “trusted proponents” could be exempt from the need for approvals or permits, or get them faster. The details have not been revealed.
Mr. Ford said he could use this provision to speed up mining in the Ring of Fire area in Northern Ontario, although he could not say how much faster mines would be opened there. He also said he could use the power to clear the way for his controversial, uncosted plan to build the world’s longest traffic tunnel under Highway 401 through Toronto, which experts have warned could come with a $60-billion-to-$120-billion price tag.
The bill would rename Ontario’s Endangered Species Act, which environmentalists praised as leading-edge when it was enacted in 2007, as the Species Conservation Act. The legislation would rewrite the purpose of the endangered-species law, dropping the goal of recovering populations of at-risk species and saying the legislation needs to take “economic considerations” into account.
Mr. Ford has long lamented delays in issuing permits for mines, which he said can be as long as 15 years, and for housing. He has also previously singled out endangered-species rules, saying that development should not be stalled “because there’s a grasshopper in a field and everyone has to stop and wait for that grasshopper.”
In a recent posting on Ontario’s online environmental registry, the government outlines its proposed endangered-species changes in more detail. It says the current approach is “complicated, takes too long to complete, and causes unnecessary delays and costs for housing, transit, and critical infrastructure.”
It also reveals that the Species Conservation Action Agency, which was set up in 2021 to spend money collected from developers on habitat restoration or other projects, has focused on “starting up its operations and has not spent any funds on projects.”
According to the SCAA’s 2023-24 annual report, it had collected $3.4-million since 2022, had recently hired a chief executive officer and planned to launch its funding program this year.
Alex Catherwood, a spokesperson for Environment Minister Todd McCarthy, said in an e-mail that “outstanding funding from the SCAA will be used to protect and restore listed species.”
She also said the proposed legislation will allow for “robust environmental protections by creating clear, enforceable rules for businesses to follow” that will include “tough fines for non-compliance.” Plus, she said, the government is committing $20-million a year for conservation projects, more than four times its current spending.
Environmental groups were particularly concerned about allowing cabinet to determine what species are protected and the narrowing of the definition of habitat to little more than an animal’s dwelling.
“Any animal needs to eat and drink and do other basic activities of life beyond having a nest or a den,” said Connie O’Connor, a biologist and the director of the Ontario Northern Boreal Program for the Wildlife Conservation Society Canada, calling the new definition “absurd.”
Laura Bowman, a lawyer at Ecojustice, said there is little evidence that endangered-species rules are holding up many projects, pointing to a 2021 report by Ontario’s Auditor-General that concluded the province was “failing in its mandate to protect species at risk.”
The report showed that from 2009, when the Endangered Species Act came into effect, to 2020, permits issued allowing an impact on species shot up more than 6,200 per cent, with 827 in 2020. Only a handful of charges against violators had been laid under the act each year, with none in 2020.
“This is just the scapegoating of vulnerable species as slowing down economic progress,“ Ms. Bowman said. ”It doesn’t have a basis in reality and it’s the species that are going to pay for this.”