Ontario’s government wants to “unleash” its resources with sweeping changes to its laws on protecting species at risk aimed at speeding up environmental approvals.
Ontario’s current Endangered Species Act will be replaced completely with a new Species Conservation Act if the current bill becomes law. One of the most significant changes is to the definition of what a species’ habitat is, which critics say raises questions about what, exactly, needs to be protected.
The current law considers the habitat to be all the areas that the species relies on for living, gathering food, migrating, hibernating and reproducing.
The new law narrows that definition to “a dwelling place, such as a den, nest or other similar place, that is occupied or habitually occupied by one or more members of a species for the purposes of breeding, rearing, staging, wintering or hibernating” and the area immediately around that dwelling place.
Ontario is scaling back species at risk protections, worrying advocates and inviting federal intervention – CBC.ca, April 30, 2025
Environmental Defence has launched a letter-writing campaign against Bill 5.
Photo: ©Paddy Duncan
