Be Aware of Provincial Bill 5

Unleashing our Economy Act

Deadline to comment is May 17th, 2025

Greetings ECA Community,

I am sending you this email as we have had many questions about the Province’s Bill 5, the Protect Ontario by Unleashing our Economy Act, 2025. The Bill was brought forward by Minister Stephen Lecce of the Ministry of Energy and Mines. It relates to changing the Species at Risk Act among numerous other omnibus bill policy changes. The ECA team has been carefully reviewing the information, speaking to government officials and to other relevant organizations before sharing a position.

The ECA is committed to an entrepreneurial approach to conservation that starts with science, but also balances people and nature. We believe that we Canadian’s do not have to choose between nature/climate and a healthy economy. We can have a healthy regional natural environment while growing a “conservation economy” at the same time. The ECA recognizes the need for Ontario to have some natural resource extraction for the economy (ie. minerals for electric vehicle batteries) and more housing for our growing population. However, we believe there is a better, more sustainable way forward.

The ECA is very concerned about the numerous sweeping changes in Bill 5 and is opposed to this new legislation as it currently reads. The current Provincial Government has made some constructive advances in environmental financing and conservation that many Ontarians are unaware of. Programs like the Ontario Greenlands Conservation Partnership as well as their ongoing efforts to expand 27 provincial parks and protected areas including Pretty River Provincial Park and Bayview Escarpment Provincial Nature Reserve.

However, Bill 5 will be a major step backwards and requires significant and immediate changes. Some of the ECA’s concerns include:

• Repealing Ontario’s Endangered Species Act, 2007 marking the end of most meaningful provincial protections for endangered, threatened and special concern species in Ontario. Wildlife requires appropriate habitat. A den is not habitat on its own. Imagine your home without a kitchen, bathrooms or any room to roam.
• Curtailing Indigenous involvement of proposed developments by ending archeological assessment requirements that would identify Indigenous or other cultural values.
• Creation of Special Economic Zones (SEZ) without criteria that would be exempt from municipal and provincial law. Lands that could have an SEZ declared by the Minister could in theory include the Greenbelt, the Niagara Escarpment Plan and Provincial Parks and protected areas.

I am writing to you today to ask you to become informed on this important matter.  The Bill 5 current status is at Second Reading. One source of the Bill 5 summary can be found here (source, Blakes):

https://www.blakes.com/insights/ontario-proposes-a-new-approach-to-at-risk-species-protection

Bill 5 on the Government of Ontario website:
https://www.ola.org/en/legislative-business/bills/parliament-44/session-1/bill-5

The ECA will continue to share our concerns with the government and will also be submitting an official public comment on the Environment Registry of Ontario website. You can also do this by May 17th. https://ero.ontario.ca/notice/025-0380

If after reviewing this information and forming your own opinion, you want to share your voice, there are many ways to do so. Below is a list of petitions from other environmental organizations:

https://www.change.org/p/defeat-bill-5-the-protect-ontario-by-unleashing-our-economy-act-2025?signed=true

https://naturesdefence.ca/2025/04/30/stop-bill-5-protect-nature-and-indigenous-rights

https://act.environmentaldefence.ca/page/170384/action/1?locale=en-US

Ontario Nature is an organization that we collaborate with. You can click below to to email Premier Ford through their website: https://ontarionature.good.do/bill-5-stop-attacks-on-endangered-species/Email/

Narwhal article: https://thenarwhal.ca/ontario-endangered-species-act-repealed/

Here are some elected provincial leaders that you can email your concerns to. Or even more effective is to call their office and request a meeting.

Minister Todd McCarthy, Minister of the Environment, Conservation, Parks, [email protected]

MPP Brian Saunderson, Simcoe-Grey, [email protected]

MPP  Paul Vickers, Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound,  [email protected]

MPP Sylvia Jones, Dufferin-Caledon (Mulmur is in the ECA’s study area), [email protected]

Thank you for your consideration,

Jarvis Strong
Executive Director
Escarpment Corridor Alliance
64 Hurontario St, Collingwood, ON, L9Y 2L6
705-441-3346 mobile
[email protected]

Registered charity #76571 8309 RR0001

For Nature. For People. For Good.