Ontario Environment Minister Rod Phillips and Attorney General Caroline Mulroney announce the province's legal case against a federal carbon tax on Aug. 2, 2018, in Toronto. (Marieke Walsh/iPolitics)

The Doug Ford government has announced it’s reviewing provincial legislation that protects endangered species in order to reduce red tape and find “efficiencies for businesses.”

The Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks on Friday released a discussion paper on the 10-year review of the province’s Endangered Species Act, kicking off a 45-day public consultation period. The review will look at ways to ensure “positive outcomes” for at-risk species, increase “efficiencies in service delivery,” and streamline approval processes, all while maintaining an “effective government oversight role.”

It will also try to ensure species assessments are based on “up-to-date science,” and that meet “multiple objectives” for ecosystem management. There are currently 243 species on the province’s Species at Risk list.

The province is consulting with Ontarians to improve the “effectiveness” of environmental protections and to ensure a “balanced approach” to improving the environment and economy, Environment Minister Rod Phillips said in a statement.

“During the past decade of implementing the Act, we have heard what works well, and what can be improved,” he said.

One claim made in the government’s discussion paper is that the province’s existing case-by-case and “species-specific” approach to policy can “sometimes limit the ability to achieve positive outcomes,” and that protections for individual species can “limit or conflict with one another.”

Another says the public doesn’t get enough notice before a new species is added to the Species at Risk list. The claim is that automatically adding species and habitat protections can “contribute to high uncertainty” and have “costly impacts” to businesses and the public.

Under the Act, the Committee on the Status of Species at Risk in Ontario (COSSARO), an independent expert body, provides scientific assessments of native plants and animals. Species and habitat protections declared endangered or threatened by COSSARO are automatically added to the Species at Risk list.



In a statement, Greenpeace Canada called on the public to respond “quickly and decisively” to prevent the Ford government from gutting protections for endangered species.

“If we don’t act now, hundreds of endangered animals, plants and other species in this province could die out in the coming years,” said Greenpeace forest campaigner Reykia Fick.

When reached, Ducks Unlimited Canada said it wouldn’t be able to comment before deadline.

The Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters (OFAH) told iPolitics it has long called for a comprehensive review of the Act and fully supported the Ford government’s decision.

OFAH policy manager Mark Ryckman said other jurisdictions are “years ahead” of Ontario in implementing “practical tools” to benefit at-risk species, such as private land stewardship programs and safe harbour agreements, which protect private landowners from future government restrictions on their land resulting from independent conservation efforts.

He said it was “unrealistic” to think that protecting species at risk can only be achieved through strict interpretation of the Act, and said the review should examine “landscape or ecosystem approaches” to protecting species and habitats, rather than case-by-case.

The World Wildlife Fund Canada told iPolitics it needed time to review the discussion paper before commenting, but noted it would participate in the consultation process.