42 aquatic species and 18 migratory birds <\/a>from Ontario\u2019s list of endangered and threatened species is one of \u201cthe most serious consequences\u201d of the repeal . The remaining protections for those species would be enforced by the federal government. <\/p>\n\u201cThe federal legislation is a bit of a backstop…So it really is the province getting out of the business of protecting the species in the province,\u201d Gray said.<\/p>\n
The province has also done away with the recognition of species classified as \u201cspecial concern.\u201d According to Environmental Defence, 106 species are affected by that change, including red-headed woodpecker, eastern mole, eastern musk turtle, and redside dace.<\/p>\n
Province defends the move<\/p>\n
In a statement to CTV News, the provincial government defended the repeal of the Endangered Species Act, saying it wasn\u2019t delivering the \u201coutcomes\u201d the people of Ontario expect.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks said proponents will still need to meet meet clearly outlined requirements to protect vulnerable species through \u201cpermit by rule\u201d \u2014 an approach they say is already used successfully in Ontario for many other environmental permissions.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnder this process, instead of waiting years for permits and authorizations, proponents will be able to register and proceed as soon as they meet all requirements. This new approach is being paired with strong enforcement, including hefty fines, potential jail time, and new investigative powers and compliance tools for officers,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
Gray said he doesn\u2019t buy how the province has positioned the new law, saying that there is \u201cno evidence\u201d to show that the Endangered Species Act slowed down development. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is an ideological attack on the environment, which, unfortunately the current government is very prone to,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tim Gray, executive director of Environmental Defence explains what this change means for Ontario’s biodiversity. A long-standing law…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":634503,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[712,49,48,295,66],"class_list":["post-634502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-apple-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=634502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634502\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/634503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}