An environmental group has raised concerns about the impact of Ontario’s Bill 5 on the future of polar bears in the province. The Protect Ontario by Unleashing our Economy Act aims to replace the Endangered Species Act with the new Species Conservation Act.
Shane Moffat, the conservation campaigns and advocacy manager at Ontario Nature, has criticized the new legislation for providing weaker protections for threatened species like polar bears. Moffatt highlighted that the previous law required the province to develop recovery strategies for at-risk species and prohibited any harm to polar bear habitats.
With the passage of Bill 5, Moffat expressed doubt that these protections would continue. The new bill also allows the cabinet to establish “special economic zones” where projects, such as mining or transportation infrastructure, can be exempt from provincial laws and municipal bylaws to expedite projects deemed crucial to the economy.
In Ontario, an estimated 800 to 1,000 polar bears reside along Hudson Bay. Amy Baxendell-Young, the manager of the Cochrane Polar Bear Habitat in northern Ontario, warned that unchecked development by mining companies near Hudson Bay could harm polar bear habitats. However, she emphasized that climate change poses the most significant threat to the polar bear population in Canada.
Baxendell-Young explained that as ice-free periods increase due to climate change, polar bears struggle to hunt seals, their main prey, as they rely on sea ice platforms for hunting. In Ontario, polar bears rely on peatland to build dens for their young, which is also becoming less stable due to climate change, leading to a decline in the province’s polar bear population over the past two decades.
Ontario’s Ministry of Environment, Conservation, and Parks, represented by spokesperson Alexandru Cioban, defended the Species Conservation Act, stating that it establishes strong environmental safeguards and rules for businesses while enhancing the enforcement of species conservation laws. The new legislation will also see an annual investment of $20 million into an enhanced species conservation program.
The Species Conservation Act will maintain the classification of species by Ontario’s Committee on the Status of Species at Risk, designating them as extirpated, endangered, or threatened. The legislation further prohibits activities likely to result in a species no longer inhabiting the wild in Ontario.
