The Ontario government has passed a new regulation that exempts several types of industrial development from the Endangered Species Act of 2007 (ESA). Essentially the deregulation means that exemption from the ESA is assumed and the burden of proof is on the challenger. In addition to the new deregulation of the ESA, the Green Energy Act also allows a provincial veto of any challenge to an alternative energy proposal based on threat to a species at risk.
Species at risk is one of the few topics on which the Ontario Government co-ordinates with the Federal Government. Without passing new regulations for the Canadian Species At Risk Act (SARA), the federal Government simply does not enforce the Act.
Although both the Ontario Act (ESA) and SARA were widely acclaimed by conservationists internationally when proclaimed, they both have become Acts on paper only and not effective measures on the ground. Your representatives in both the Provincial and National governments need to hear your views.