Ontario's "green" Liberals put endangered species at risk

Caribou, monarch butterflies, badgers and barn owls remain at risk in Ontario because new legislation has exemptions that allow the destruction of their habitat, says the province's environmental commissioner.

Gordon Miller has released his first report on the Endangered Species Act, highlighting his concern about exemptions that allow the Minister of Natural Resources to grant permits for development or industrial activity without first getting full public input on how that would affect Ontario's 184 at-risk species.

The report, Last Line of Defence, calls for regulations requiring the ministry to publicize proposals for developments, such as highways, that could harm fragile species....

The threat to biodiversity, said Miller, has reached a crisis point, and many species are dying off globally. Geologists commonly speak of five prior mass extinctions, one being that of the dinosaurs. "Some are calling the current rate of species lost the earth's sixth great mass extinction," Miller said.

In Ontario, there is no law requiring the province to monitor its biodiversity, so no one really knows the overall health of its species and their habitats, Miller said. He is pushing the government to create a program that would give a detailed and ongoing assessment of species and their habitat - helping some species to recoup before they reach at-risk status.