An environmental lawyer and a biology professor in northern Ontario are both sounding the alarm about changes to the way that biodiversity — including at-risk species — is protected from development activity.

As of March 30, Ontario’s Endangered Species Act has officially been repealed and replaced with new legislation that says the province will continue “to provide for the protection and conservation of species at risk while taking into account social and economic considerations, including the need for sustainable economic growth.”

The new Species Conservation Act scraps the province’s permit process and instead, says developers must register activities that may impact at-risk species before shovels go into the ground, rather than requiring case-by-case applications for review, input and approval or rejection.