Ontario’s anti-nature Bill 5 will send threats to at-risk birds soaring
Every May, the season’s change becomes palpable all across Ontario. You start waking up to birdsong outside your window and glimpsing familiar figures in bright breeding plumage returned to the neighbourhood. Migratory birds signal spring’s arrival, helping make this time of year feel so vital and magical.
Unfortunately, this spring these birds are returning to a province where their future seems increasingly uncertain, especially for species at risk like the majestic golden eagle and lanky lesser yellowlegs. That’s because Doug Ford’s Ontario government is rushing through Bill 5, a series of devastating changes to environmental legislation, including a repeal of the Endangered Species Act, that puts wildlife and nature in grave danger.
If passed, the ironically named “Protect Ontario by Unleashing our Economy Act” would leave Ontario’s most at-risk species with little to no protection. Some species may be more adversely affected than others, and we’re particularly worried about the ones that are already at high risk of extinction.
Among other changes with concerning consequences for wildlife and people in the province, this new legislation would remove provincial responsibility for federally listed migratory birds — leaving it up to the federal government alone to protect them.
In Canada, protecting species at risk is a shared responsibility between governments. Provinces and territories are responsible for protecting and managing species at risk and their habitats within their jurisdictions. The federal government can intervene and protect species and habitats on federal lands, and if it’s determined that provinces or territories are not doing an adequate job.
Discouragingly, the federal government has a mixed track record of protecting and recovering species in Canada, as we have seen recently in their failure to issue an Emergency Order to protect endangered southern resident killer whales off B.C.’s southern coast. The results of our Living Planet Report Canada 2020 showed populations of species of global conservation concern (species assessed as threatened according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List) have fallen in Canada by an average of 42 per cent since 1970.
There are currently 271 species protected under Ontario’s Endangered Species Act, which will have one less layer of protection if Bill 5 passes. Forty-four of them are birds, ranging from the adorable piping plover to birds of prey like the peregrine falcon and barn owl and elegant songbirds such as the olive-sided flycatcher and evening grosbeak.
Take action to help stop Bill 5
Want to speak up against this dangerous rollback in protections for birds and other wildlife? Join us in demanding that the Ontario government withdraw Bill 5 and replace it with legislation that actually protects at-risk species.
Here are a few more at-risk bird species made particularly vulnerable by the changes proposed in Bill 5.
Golden eagle
If you’ve ever seen a golden eagle in the wild, chances are you will remember it! The golden eagle is one of Ontario’s largest and most powerful birds of prey, with only an estimated 10 to 20 breeding pairs left in the province. They’re sensitive to disturbance and have been known to abandon their nests due to things like noise from boats or nearby development.
Golden eagles are Endangered in Ontario, meaning they face imminent extinction or extirpation (becoming locally extinct in the region). However, they are not considered at risk federally, so if the Endangered Species Act is repealed, as Bill 5 is threatening to do, they may not be protected either provincially or federally under the Species at Risk Act (SARA).
They are also not protected under the federal Migratory Birds Convention Act (MBCA), despite being a migratory species. When the MBCA was adopted in 1916, eagles were one of the species excluded from the act because they were seen as detrimental to humans. And apparently one of the rationales for not adding it was that this species was already protected by Ontario’s ESA.
Concerningly, the few remaining breeding pairs of golden eagles in Ontario live in the Hudson Bay Lowlands. This region is one that Ford has identified as an example of where new “special economic zones” are likely to apply — areas exempt from all environmental laws — so he can “unleash” the so-called Ring of Fire mining development.
This would leave golden eagles in Ontario without protection and potentially lost from the province forever.
American white pelican
White pelicans are huge aquatic birds, weighing as much as seven kilograms and boasting wingspans up to three metres with large orange bills as long as 39 centimetres long in males.
Historically, the American white pelican was harmed by the use of DDT in agriculture and the widespread destruction of wetland habitat across its range. Designated as Threatened in Canada in 1978, the banning of DDT and other measures helped its population recover and it was re-designated Not at Risk in 1987.
The recovery of the American white pelican is one of Canada’s great conservation success stories. But while the national population is considered healthy, that story is different in Ontario where it has been listed as Threatened in Ontario since 2009 due to changing water levels, disease and human disturbance.
Just like the golden eagle, the pelican could be left without provincial or federal protection if Bill 5 is passed.
Rusty blackbird
With their golden-brown accents and squeaky-hinge sounds, “rusties” are novel in comparison to the more often seen red-winged blackbirds and common grackles. The rusty blackbird is listed as Special Concern both in Ontario and federally; however, birds that are Special Concern do not receive the same legal protections as those that are listed as Threatened or Endangered. Instead, management plans are developed to try and prevent them from becoming Threatened or Endangered.
Rusty blackbirds are another example of a species that is not protected federally under the MBCA, despite being a migratory bird, because species considered “nuisance birds” were excluded when the act was first adopted in 1916 and never added in.
Lesser yellowlegs and Hudsonian godwit
These leggy, long-billed shorebirds are both considered Threatened in Ontario. At the federal level, they have also been assessed as Threatened since in 2019 (Hudsonian godwit) and 2020 (lesser yellowlegs) but not yet officially listed under SARA, leaving them unprotected under this act.
The main threats to the lesser yellowlegs in Ontario have been identified as resource extraction, including mining, quarrying and peat extraction — the very activities that Bill 5 is looking to expedite.
Both species are protected under the MBCA — but this will be the only protection for them if Bill 5 goes through.
Overall, Bill 5 would strip away a layer of protection for all five of these species — with some still receiving protections under the MBCA and others not — leaving these at-risk birds even more vulnerable than they already are.
