The Toronto Zoo is proposing an "insurance policy" for species at risk, should the Ontario government pass legislation that weakens their protection: biobanking their reproductive material.
Dolf DeJong, CEO of the Toronto Zoo, spoke with a legislative committee studying Bill 5, the Protect Ontario by Unleashing our Economy Act, on Thursday. The bill aims to speed up development in Ontario, particularly of mining projects, and replace the province's Endangered Species Act with legislation that environmental groups argue offers far weaker protections, among many other changes.
DeJong urged the province not to pass the schedule of the bill concerning endangered species.
"We're concerned this act will result in the erosion of biodiversity and the loss of species at risk," he told the committee.
The legislation would "undo decades of conservation efforts and threaten some of Ontario's most vulnerable species," he said.
DeJong told the committee the bill would remove the automatic protection of the habitat of species at risk, replacing it with voluntary measures, reduce the role of science in decision-making processes concerning those species and lower the bar for when habitats must be protected.
"We urge the committee to reject the removal of the Endangered Species Act," DeJong said. "As currently written, the bill will undermine species protection at a time when we need to restore and strengthen science-based decision-making rooted in deep and meaningful community consultation."
"If the government decides to move forward as written, we have one ask: establish an insurance policy for these species and their well-being," he continued. "This government needs to commit to funding to create an Ontario wildlife biobank at your Toronto Zoo. Our reproductive science team can play a critical role, working with partners across all walks of life, to ensure we have a backup plan for future generations."
According to the Toronto Zoo, a biobank is for the long-term storage of biological material that the zoo can use to produce offspring of a species using assisted reproductive technologies, until the species can thrive again in its natural habitat.
DeJong told the committee that it won't save species at risk without their habitats.
"I think a lot of people have probably been caught up in the hype around woolly mammoths and dire wolves," he said, referring to recent scientific achievements that have brought back characteristics of extinct animals in genetically modified living ones.
"Technology isn't going to save these species," said DeJong. "Safe spaces will."
Replacing the Endangered Species Act is only one part of Bill 5.
The legislation would also give cabinet the power to designate an area a “special economic zone,” and then exempt selected proponents and projects from requirements under any provincial law or regulation, including bylaws of municipalities and local boards, that would otherwise apply in that zone. Federal laws, like the Criminal Code, and Charter and treaty rights, cannot be waived, however.
Premier Doug Ford's government has said it would use these powers to enable companies to more quickly access minerals from the resource-rich Ring of Fire in northern Ontario.
The bill also proposes to speed up approvals for mining projects through a “one-window” approach, ends an environmental assessment for a controversial dump expansion in Dresden, Ont., and empowers cabinet to exempt projects from archeological assessment requirements.
Public hearings on the bill got underway Thursday, with a second date scheduled Monday. Ahead of those meetings, the interior committee received more than 100 written submissions from citizens, advocacy groups and Indigenous communities that oppose the bill.
