Shame on Ontario for undermining protection for species at risk:

Ontario industries no longer have to work as hard to protect vulnerable creatures under new environmental rules
Toronto Star Editorial June 7 013
When a leading environmental group resigns in protest from a government panel working on changes to Ontario’s Endangered Species Act, it’s clear that the woodland caribou and Blanding’s turtles are getting the short end of the stick.

Concerns from the Wildlands League were confirmed last week when the Ministry of Natural Resources posted amendments to the act that was once considered the gold standard in North American species protection.
By now it’s obvious that Ontario’s pledge to save dozens of creatures on their last legs was merely a faux-green promise, as the ministry deals with funding cuts and industry demands. As Wildlands executive director Janet Sumner succinctly states, “Even a great law can be castrated.”
Environmentalists are right to be angry. They lost a hard-fought battle, but must continue to fight on behalf of dying species — even if it involves the legal action that some are contemplating. Unless Premier Kathleen Wynne’s government has a rapid change of heart, a battle in the courtroom may be the only option.
It’s a long shot, but worth the effort. After all, the original 2007 act was touted by the Liberals and environmentalists as leading-edge legislation that created a strong buffer between industry and at-risk wildlife. It demanded companies “improve” the circumstances of declining species. But now, the sweeping changes will require many industries — including forestry, exploratory mining, renewable energy and hydro — merely to “minimize” their harm to those deemed at-risk. That’s a far cry from the original protections.
The new rules made by cabinet give resource industries numerous exemptions, relaxing protections for such endangered species as wolverines, the Acadian flycatcher songbird and the harmless eastern hog-nosed snake. All play an integral role in the ecosystem.
These exemptions — such as those impacting the beleaguered woodland caribou pictured on the Canadian quarter — will significantly lower the standards of protection. “I guess we’ll need a new animal for the Canadian quarter,” says Dan McDermott, director of the Ontario chapter of Sierra Club Canada.
It’s a shame to watch a government gut its own highly respected legislation. The natural resources ministry should reconsider. Since the changes are regulatory in nature it wouldn’t be a major setback to add some protections back into the act. Surely the Liberals don’t want to preside over the extinction of the besieged. Ontario can do better.

Ontario conservation group fears endangered species taking back seat to industries
There will be serious repercussions to the habitats of endangered species if the province bends over backward to accommodate industries, warns an environmental NGO
By: Raveena Aulakh Toronto Star May 29 2013
There will be serious repercussions to the habitats of endangered species if the province bends over backward to accommodate industries, warns an environmental NGO.
Wildlands League, a leading Ontario conservation agency, resigned from the Endangered Species Act Panel earlier this week and wrote to Premier Kathleen Wynne outlining its concerns.
“If the regulations your government is about to enact go forward as contemplated, we fear that the act will be neutered; species survival will be jeopardized,” Janet Sumner, executive director of the league, told Wynne in the resignation letter.
She also said the ministry of natural resources seemed to be offering too many exemptions.
But Natural Resources Minister David Orazietti says that is “unequivocally untrue.”
“We believe we have reached a very effective balance in the proposed regulatory changes that will continue to safeguard Ontario’s endangered species,” he said.
The ministry embarked on “modernization of approvals” under the Endangered Species Act in September 2012 and invited organizations to be part of a panel. The modernization includes streamlining the way the ministry issues permits and licenses.
(The list of endangered species is updated every few years and so implementation is continuous. There are about 65 species, including the woodland caribou, which are scheduled to get general habitat protection by July 1, 2013.)
But the league says under the guise of streamlining, the ministry is giving permanent exemptions to projects that are in the works and not even encouraging industries to come up with alternatives that could be better for endangered species.
One of the main concerns the league has surrounds the Ring of Fire, the northern Ontario belt that is currently home to a mining exploration project.
Anna Baggio, the league’s director of conservation planning, said if the proposals go through, a mining company would be able to build a mine and a road without looking at alternatives that could be better for the caribou population in that area.
She said that during discussions as part of the panel, the league suggested a transition period for industries. The ministry, she said, proposed exemptions across the board.
Orazietti agreed that in circumstances where an approval was given before a species was identified as being at risk, the project will be allowed to proceed “but there will be thorough monitoring,” he added.
For new projects, there will be requirement of full compliance, he said.
The league isn’t the only one concerned about proposed legislation.
In a letter in January to Krista Adams, the senior permits and agreements specialist with the ministry, the David Suzuki Foundation protested against exemptions.
“The exemptions clause in the act was created for truly exceptional situations — not for routine industrial and development activity,” said the letter.
“The proposal to use exemptions as a rule, rather than an exception, in the act’s implementation, undermines the act’s integrity.”