Fight for Nature – Fight Bill 23

Long-standing safeguards for natural heritage in southern Ontario, and especially the Greenbelt, are about to be swept away by Bill 23, an omnibus bill being rushed through by Doug Ford’s government at Queen’s Park. Introduced on October 25, Bill 23 is devastating in its scope and disregard for the environment, and has already passed second reading.  Wetlands and natural heritage are especially under attack, and even more powers will be stripped from conservation authorities.

If you care for nature, now is the moment to speak up. First, get informed with this excellent backgrounder by Ontario Nature. Then follow their advice to comment. You have many comment opportunities online; use every avenue you can find time for.

An email to your MPP can have impact; in one or two short sentences, you can convey your concern about Bill 23, and ask your MPP to oppose its passing.

A Nov. 17 deadline looms to submit written comments online to the Standing Committee on Heritage, Infrastructure and Cultural Property.

You have other comment opportunities – with varying deadlines in November and December – for a set of proposals on the province’s Environmental Registry.

Also important: share this blog with your networks; talk with friends and neighbours; use radio show phone-ins and letters to the editor to voice your concern.

TFN Advocacy Team

Toronto Field Naturalists wishes to acknowledge this Land through which we walk. For thousands of years, the Land has been shared by the Wendat, the Haudenosaunee, and the Anishinaabe. Toronto is situated on the Land within the Toronto Purchase, Treaty 13, the traditional and treaty Lands of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. This territory is also part of the Dish with One Spoon Wampum, a covenant agreement between Anishinaabeg, Haudenosaunee, Wendat peoples and allied nations to peaceably share the land and all its resources. Today, the Land is home to peoples of numerous nations. We are all grateful to have the opportunity to continue to care for and share the beauty of this Land.