Approximately 70 people attended a public consultation meeting in North Bay to provide their input into the provincial 10-year review of the Endangered Species Act.
Wednesday night’s meeting at the West Ferris Arena was divided between an informal conversation piece and a town hall format.
“I think during the town hall, there was a lot of questions about the process, and what the review means, and how we’re going to give our information to council, and what goes on from there,” said city planning manager Bev Hillier who addressed questions from the public.
“We’ve been receiving lots of written comments from people and I’m hoping they have some ideas about what it is they want to see changed either locally or through that review process.”
Four stations were set up around the hall for people to write their comments, each one relating to the same four focus areas that the province had put out through its discussion paper.
“To talk about landscape, how species are listed, the recovery response process that the government has, and also that implementation action strategy component as well,” said Hillier.
A meeting was held the previous day with a representative group which included some development industry practitioners dealing with the Endangered Species Act, and environmental groups coming together to talk about the discussion paper, and what it means locally.
Taking part in that meeting was Brennain Lloyd, who has made presentations to council about the importance of the Act.
She commented that the main focus of the group discussion centered around implementation and the issues surrounding it.
“Why has the Act been so slow to roll out? It has been 10 years that the act has been in place, and we still don’t have a recovery plan for maybe a hundred of the listed species,” said Lloyd.
“It is a long process. It is a complex Act and it is unavoidable that it be a complex Act because we’re dealing with a lot of different species, under a lot of different pressures, and a lot of different kinds of habitats. And there was a lot of shared frustration with that.”
Lloyd is concerned that the provincial review was launched without any kind of information base.
“An often repeated question to the province is, what is the rush? I’m in contact with a lot of national and provincial conservation groups that do work with the Act on a regular basis, and they were surprised at the announcement of the review and the really rapid timeline, and that we really don’t know what the province’s next steps are. They’ve put a discussion paper out, they’re going to get comments back in a pretty quick turnaround, and then what? Then what? It is really unusual for a ministry that is this new with the file, for them to roll out this kind of review.”
City councillor and North Bay-Mattawa Conservation Authority board chair, Chris Mayne, attended Wednesday night’s public meeting wanting to get a better sense of what the implications would be with the city requesting exemptions from or commenting on the Endangered Species Act.
“Is there an opportunity to balance some level, some direction of development with that? That is the challenge before council. But I think coming out this evening helps to get a better sense of the direction that most people in the community would like to see us go. We’re not looking for outright exemptions. The Endangered Species Act will stay in place regardless of any discussions or comment. It has been made clear that it is there to stay,” said Mayne.
“I think what’s coming out of the meeting this evening, and the on-going meetings is how important people in this community place the protections for endangered species like Blanding’s turtles. I think anybody who is conservation-minded, has to see the amount of support that is in the community for endangered species, and wetland habitats.”
Yan Roberts who has been vocal about saving endangered species remains optimistic that the voice of the community will be represented in the report to council.
“I think that we have to be hopeful that it is not just going to be a cosmetic consultation, that it will actually be participatory. We’re hopeful that staff can help bridge the communities concerns and articulate them both to council and to the province. Obviously, they’re consulting with other stakeholders as well, so where that balance will land, we’ll see on February 26 when this is presented to council.”
Written comments are still being accepted at the Planning and Building Services office on the second floor of City Hall, or emailed to [email protected].
The deadline for submissions to the city is the end of the day, Friday, February 15.
Anyone needing extra time has until March 4 to make a direct submission to the province