The Ontario Climate Emergency Campaign (OCEC) s a non-partisan campaign promoting awareness on the climate crisis and environmental issues. The campaign is based on our 12-point Climate Action Plan, which has 239 signatory groups and 378 signatory individuals. To join OCEC, sign on as a group or sign on as an individual.

The opinions expressed in this newsletter are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of OCEC. Please do not reply to this email: messages may be sent to ocecnews@gmail.com. 

We will focus on the eighth action of OCEC’s 12-point Climate Action Plan.

We will look at threats to biodiversity in southern and northern Ontario and actions by OCEC and its signatories’ to protect biodiversity, particularly by pushing back on Bill 23. We will then turn to COP 15, the international conference on biodiversity currently taking place in Montreal, followed by relevant national initiatives. These will be interspersed with resources for more information, and we will conclude with some calls to action, good news items and upcoming events. 

Biodiversity refers to all the variety of life on Earth, from the tiniest insect to a vast northern forest, and all of the connections among them. No species, including people, can live without others to provide it with food and habitat. Ecosystems are unique living systems and are not replaceable. They are valued not just for the material services they provide but also for aesthetic and spiritual reasons. Healthy ecosystems require a range of animals, plants, and microorganisms to provide us with the air we breathe, the food we eat, the medicines we use, and more.

Biodiversity loss and climate change are the two great existential crises of our time, with climate change itself being one of the key threats to biodiversity.  And as with climate change, this 6th Mass Extinction in earth’s history is primarily the result of human activity, Ontario’s Biodiversity Strategy identifies five major threats: pollution, climate change, habitat change, invasive species and unsustainable use of resources. According to the WWF Living Planet Report 2022,  wildlife populations have declined by an average 69% in the past 50 years. 

Actions by our current and past governments have produced serious threats to biodiversity. Action #8 of our Climate Action Plan calls for governments to support and invest in Indigenous-led conservation initiatives, restore natural ecosystems functions, preserve biodiversity, and increase carbon sequestration.

Guest editorial by Katie Krelove
Wilderness Committee (Ontario Chapter) - an OCEC Signatory 

The world is in Montreal this December for the 15th UN Convention on Biodiversity (COP15)  where government leaders will negotiate a new framework to reverse the global loss of biodiversity – also known as the web of life that supports us all.   

We are there too, along with other conservation groups, Indigenous leaders, youth and civil society to share best practices for protecting nature and to push for an ambitious agreement that centres Indigenous rights, equity and government accountability.  

But we also know that while we’re thinking globally for COP15, it’s just as important to act locally. We know that Ontario needs to drastically reverse course to step up to what the crisis of nature loss requires. Close to home, not only is the Ford government passing regressive laws to remove protections for the greenbelt and wetlands, they are also failing to uphold the province’s existing Endangered Species Act, meant to protect and recover the most vulnerable creatures.  The spotlight on nature that the COP15 provides is a chance for all of us to push Ontario to put our own house in order when it comes to addressing the biodiversity crisis. 

While Canada’s federal government has legal protections for threatened species, they only apply to federal lands like national parks and post offices. This  leaves provinces and territorial governments holding the reins for safeguarding the vast majority of species from threats to their critical habitat. That’s why this COP15 we will be putting pressure on the Ontario government to clean up their act and quit prioritizing destructive industry and development over protecting the nature that sustains the planet.

Read Katie’s recent column in the Toronto Star: Minister rejects protection for Catchacoma forest.

Ontario is a vast, diverse province, larger than many countries in the world. Ecosystems across this province range from lush, deciduous Carolinian forests in the southwest to the Arctic tundra along the coast of Hudson Bay. It is home to an exceptional array of ecosystems, flora and fauna, including over 70 million hectares of forest, over 30,000 known species, and more than 250,000 lakes
(Ontario Biodiversity Council: State of Ontario’s Biodiversity 2020 Summary)

Ontario is home to a broad assortment of ecosystems, including prairies, forests and woodlands, wetlands and tundra, all of which are under threat. As of January 2021, according to the Ontario Biodiversity Council, there were 243 species on the Species at Risk in Ontario List, an increase of 19 species over their 2015 Report.

The Ford Government's urban sprawl agenda for building housing faster, rushed through Parliament last month in the now infamous Bill 23, is supposedly meant to house thousands of migrants coming to the GTHA, in need of a long commute on Highway 413, to large homes, built just for them in far flung suburbs few migrants can afford.  It will also deliver major profits to speculators, generous donors of the governing party, who have bought land in protected areas, on Greenbelt farms and wetlands. Biodiversity, all the species of animals, plants, fungi and bacteria interacting in a geographic area, an ecosystem, not to mention food security, clean air and water are at stake.  Municipalities and Conservation authorities are stripped of powers to present more locally appropriate, low carbon, sustainable alternatives.  Environmental regulations protecting the Greenbelt and Wetlands are gutted. Interestingly, the Narwhal reports that the Building Industry and Land Development Association, which declared their support for Bill 23, is now urging the Ontario government to be ‘cautious’ with conservation authority changes, which they fear will limit access to technical environmental expertise.

Canada contains about one-quarter of wetlands globally, and one-quarter of Canada’s wetlands are found in Ontario. Therefore, our province has a critical role in wetland conservation at a local, national and global scale. Despite this, Ontario continues to experience ongoing wetland losses.(Ontario Nature)

Watch the Nov. 7, 2022 Ontario Nature webinar  "Working together for Ontario's Wetlands" detailing the value of Ontario's wetlands and the threat to them posed by the Ford government's fast-tracked legislative and regulatory changes.

Biodiversity and the very possibility of nature-based solutions to the impacts of global warming are at stake in the Progressive Conservative government's proposal to remove 7,400 acres from the Greenbelt.  Yes, Premier Ford lied, telling voters he'd never touch the Greenbelt. The government thinks it can just swap those acres with 9,600 from elsewhere, most of which is already protected.  Clearly, they missed their first biology class, one ecosystem cannot be swapped for another, each is individual and unique in time, place and character, as much as any human being. 

Indigenous people know that better than most. Did the government of Ontario consult First Nations on Bill 23, the Greenbelt and Wetlands regulations? No. The Chiefs of Ontario describe the initiatives as a “clear violation of First Nations constitutionally protected, inherent and Treaty rights and its inevitable adverse environmental impacts on First Nations ancestral and traditional territories”. The Chiefs of Ontario are calling on the Ford government to repeal the More Homes Built Faster Act (Bill 23).

We have to fight the Progressive Conservative Government's legislative and regulatory changes until they are revoked.  Margaret Atwood states it clearly:  It Ain’t Over

• Ontario Nature: Bill 23 Media Statement, November 28, 2022
• Chiefs of Ontario: Statement on Bill 23. Chiefs of Ontario and First Nations Oppose Bill 23: More Homes Built Faster Act
• The Headwaters Institute of Ontario: Key Takeaways on Bill 23 et al
• The Narwhal: Ontario ignored its own experts in building Highway 413 and Bradford Bypass - Ontario Auditor General’s report on the Ford government’s environmental record.
• Simcoe County Greenbelt Media statement: Auditor General Report Confirms that the Bradford Bypass is a Boondoggle
• The Land Between: the Land Between is the name of a globally rare and nationally unique bioregion in Southern Ontario, and the last intact living landscape in Southern Ontario. It is also the name of a grassroots charity working to protect the bioregion. Numerous resources are available on their website.
• Against Bill 23: news, info, events, free toolkits and supports
  

On November 28, 2022, we saw the proposed Bill 23 passed and adopted as the More Homes Built Faster Act after a rushed and incomplete consultation process from which several essential voices were entirely or mostly excluded, including Indigenous Nations and Municipalities. The same day OCEC and TCAN held a joint press conference at Queen’s Park highlighting some of the many deep concerns with Bill 23. OCEC called for Days of Action during the press conference, stating that Ontarians would not stand down in the face of the many threats posed by Bill 23 to the environment, including the Greenbelt and Conservation Authorities, public health, social housing and equity, municipal governance, revenues and tax stability, and to our democracy.

View the Halt Bill 23 press conference video.

Additional media coverage was provided by:

• CTV News: 1:28 mark
• CBC News: 13:58 mark
• Ex-Mayor Steve Parish’s Op Ed in the Toronto Star 

Days of Action Rallies

With the skilled organizing and support of OCEC Signatory Environmental Defence and co-organizing and promotion by OCEC across our nearly 250 signatory partner organizations, we were able to mobilize 30 rallies for Days of Action all across the province within only 4 days, and there have been many more since then. Below are a few examples of the rallies organized by OCEC Signatories.

• Environmental Defence: Repeal Bill 23 & Hands Off The Greenbelt Days Of Action
• David Suzuki Foundation: Protect Caribou Habitat Petition
• Against Bill 23: a grassroots mobilization of people and groups from across Ontario
• Wilderness Committee: Tell the Minister of the Environment to fix protections for species-at-risk

Great swaths of the boreal forest and the peatlands of the Hudson Bay Lowlands in northern Ontario hold enormous stores of carbon which could-help-stabilize-the climate. With global warming they, and all the biodiversity they contain, such as an already endangered herd of woodland caribou, are threatened by global warming and in danger of making the problem worse if that carbon is released by mining and forestry.

The image above shows the fen pattern in the Hudson Bay Lowlands, the world's second largest peatland complex and third largest wetland. Photo: Lorna Harris/WCS Canada.

• Peatlands cover just 3% of Earth but could help stabilize the climate: (National Observer: Sept 17, 2021)
• Canada’s Emissions Reduction Plan confirms commitment to peatlands:
  (Wildlife Conservation Society of Canada: May 16, 2022)
• Canada Places Second in Global Ranking of Battery Producers
  (The Energy Mix, Dec. 4, 2022)
• Video: Ring of Fire Threatens 'The Breathing Lands': (SCAN! and Environment Haliburton) 
• Friends of the Attawapiskat and their Weekly Updates on the Ring of Fire.
• Mining Injustice Solidarity Network (MISN) resists the negligent practices of Canadian mining companies, who comprise over 75% of mining businesses worldwide. 
• Ontario Nature: Mining in Ontario - A deeper look and Species at Risk in Northern Ontario

António Guterres, the UN secretary general, addressed the opening ceremony of the Cop15 biodiversity summit on December 6, 2022, in Montreal, Canada:

Humanity has become a weapon of mass extinction and governments must end the “orgy of destruction…We are out of harmony with nature. In fact, we are playing an entirely different song. Around the world, for hundreds of years, we have conducted a cacophony of chaos, played with instruments of destruction. Deforestation and desertification are creating wastelands of once-thriving ecosystems. Our land, water and air are poisoned by chemicals and pesticides, and choked with plastics … The most important lesson we impart to children is to take responsibility for their actions. What example are we setting when we ourselves are failing this basic test?
(The Guardian, December 6, 2022)

80% of the remaining biodiversity on earth is on lands inhabited by indigenous peoples.  Indigenous knowledge and stewardship are widely recognized as central to halting the rapid decline of biodiversity and preserving what remains. The role of Indigenous representatives at COP 15 will therefore be central to its success.

 “Indigenous Genocide = Ecocide. To Save Biodiversity, Stop Invading our Lands.'’
Indigenous protesters interrupt Prime Minister Trudeau’s COP 15 opening speech:

The goal of COP 15, the Conference of the Parties to the  UN Conference on Biodiversity, is to finalise a post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) to ensure:

1. conservation of biological diversity
2. sustainable use of the components of biological diversity, and 
3. fair and equitable sharing of the benefits from using genetic resources. 

See SCAN! signatory Ron Corkum’s Presentation on COP 15. 

Ecojustice also has a COP 15 brief.

One of the key issues at COP 15 is whether the ‘high ambition’ goal of conserving and protecting 30% of land and marine areas by 2030 - ‘30x30” will receive consent from all Parties to the Conference.  Negotiators must try to reconcile many different positions. Indigenous peoples worry about even more land grabs. Then there are differences among the Parties. For example, the EU is proposing that extractivism by the mining and forestry industries be allowed in two-thirds of those areas “provided biodiversity is not harmed”. Experts and environmentalists are opposed. Resource extractivism is a large part of the problem. According to a recent article in Nature, the EU climate plan also sacrifices carbon storage and biodiversity for bioenergy. Incoming policies will cause the European Union to harvest more wood, shift one-fifth of cropland to bioenergy and outsource deforestation.

• Cop15 essential reading: seven books that explain the biodiversity crisis
  (The Guardian)
• Who wants what at the COP15 biodiversity summit (Carbon Brief)
• Climate Change Amplifies Risk of ‘Insect Apocalypse (The Energy Mix)
• Seven ways to include nature in our economic choices. (Corporate Knights)

Indigenous rights and treaties are enshrined in the Canadian constitution, and in 2021 the Canadian government passed a law adding the United Nations Declaration of Indigenous Rights (UNDRIP). Free, prior and informed consent on land use lies at the heart of that body of law.  Listen to the words of Chief Wayne Moonias of the Neskantaga First Nation of the James Bay lowlands.

Canada is committed to the CBD high ambition goal of protecting and conserving 30% of Canada’s land and marine areas by 2030. But again, we are falling short - less than 14% of each has been protected to date. At least Canada is an advocate of incorporating indigenous leadership and stewardship in the Global Biodiversity Framework.

However, the federal government has just produced a new Critical Minerals Strategy,  streamlining the environmental assessment process in a way that could seriously undermine both the protection of biodiversity and Indigenous rights, according to Mining Watch Canada.

• Timeline: Canadian Wildlife Service and Canada’s nature conservation milestones
  (Environment and Climate Change Canada)
• Canada’s Conserved Areas (Environment and Climate Change Canada, 2022) 
• More than 2,000 wild species face a high risk of being wiped out in Canada, report warns (CBC)
• Wild Species: The General Status of Species in Canada:  These comprehensive reports on the state of a broad cross-section of Canada’s species, from all provinces, territories and ocean regions, are released every 5 years. The 2020 report is now available.
• Protecting Nature, Protecting Life (Greenpeace Canada)

• On Dec. 8th, Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson announced that Canada will keep the promise it made at COP 26 in Glasgow to end taxpayer subsidies for international fossil fuel projects by December 31. Read the article in The Energy Mix Weekender.
• On Dec. 7th, at COP 15, Prime Minister Trudeau committed $800m of funding over seven years for Indigenous-led conservation projects. Read Cop15: Trudeau pledges £510m for Indigenous-led conservation projects (The Guardian).
• Canada’s Emissions Reduction Plan confirms commitment to peatlands (Wildlife Conservation Society Canada)
• Grassy Narrows just secured a ‘major landmark’ 20 years after its logging blockade began (Toronto Star, Dec. 2, 2022)
• Renewable power’s growth is being turbocharged as countries seek to strengthen energy security (IEA, Dec 6, 2022) Renewables are predicted to increase by 2.4 billion watts over the next 5 years.
• France to require all large parking lots to be covered by solar panels (Electrek, Nov 8, 2022)

Thank you to every OCEC member organisation and individual for responding to our Calls for Action! Every action made a difference whether signing a petition, calling your MPP, submitting a report or attending a Rally. These efforts continue. Learn more about the Greenbelt Promise Campaign and the Alliance for a Liveable Ontario

As we head into the holiday season, we hope you will all have time to rest and restore with family and friends. We hope you will have an opportunity to reflect on all we accomplished together in the past year, how adversity has allowed us to grow stronger collectively and on all we may accomplish in the year ahead.

Sincere best wishes,
The OCEC Team