OSPE Submits Recommendations on Ontario’s New Species Conservation Guidance

On October 30, 2025, OSPE filed a formal submission to the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP) on the province’s proposed guidance under the Species Conservation Act, 2025 (SCA) (ERO #025-0380).  

OSPE believes Ontario can speed up approvals and protect species if the rules are clear, evidence-based, and workable for proponents and regulators alike. 

Bill 5 (Protect Ontario by Unleashing our Economy Act, 2025) sets an ambition to accelerate permits and keep Ontario competitive. Engineers share that goal. However, engineers design and deliver infrastructure that must coexist with healthy ecosystems. Engineering guidance in the SCA is essential since the new guidance determines how projects are assessed, what evidence is needed, and how impacts are avoided, minimized, or offset. 

OSPE’s position reflects both realities. We support streamlined, predictable approvals on the condition that environmental outcomes are maintained or improved, decisions remain science-based and transparent, and responsibilities are clear and enforceable.

OSPE Recommendations 

Our submission focuses on making the guidance operational, auditable, and digital-first, with role clarity for engineers and other qualified professionals. Highlights include: 

• Make key concepts actionable. Define adverse impact, core habitat, critical function, cumulative effects, and net-gain in terms that practitioners can apply. Add decision trees that route activities to the right pathway—excepted, registrable, or permit—and spell out the required evidence at each step. Include worked examples (linear infrastructure, water crossings, site redevelopment, aggregate, renewable energy, municipal works). 

• State the mitigation hierarchy clearly. Avoid → minimize → restore → offset—backed by criteria for moving between steps. Tie the level of study and documentation to risk tiers (species status, habitat sensitivity, scale, duration). Include post-construction monitoring, adaptive triggers, contingencies, and measurable performance metrics. 

• Create an authoritative data portal. Integrate public sources (National Heritage Information Centre, conservation authorities, municipalities, federal datasets) and provide a secure channel for Indigenous and community-held knowledge. Publish updated cadences and confidence ratings. Allow model-assisted desktop screens (with error bounds) to focus field work, not replace it. 

• Standardize habitat delineation. Issue GIS standards: minimum mapping scales, attributes, buffers, and schemas so delineations are reproducible across projects. Where uncertainty is high, use adaptive buffers with evidence-based reduction conditions. Provide species-group field manuals with protocols by season and detection method. 

• Clarify professional roles and accountability. Define how professional sign-off (engineers or other qualified professionals) interfaces with Ministry decisions. Set minimum qualifications, use standard checklists, and retention of field notes, models, and monitoring data. For complex or safety-critical projects, require competent professional oversight with a clear line of accountability. 

• Respect Indigenous rights and data sovereignty. Commit to early engagement and co-development of guidance where species are culturally significant. Establish protocols for consent, governance, and use of Indigenous data. Enable co-monitoring and community-led restoration where appropriate. 

• Aim for no-net-loss—preferably net-gain—of biodiversity. When impacts remain after avoidance and minimization, offsets should be measurable and auditable. 

The Engineering Lens 

Engineers are responsible for planning, design, construction, and operations. Engineers need guidance that: 

• Provides early certainty on whether an activity is excepted, registrable, or requires a permit. 

• Sets quality expectations for data, methods, and documentation so reviewers can make timely decisions. 

• Uses fit-for-risk pathways to keep low-risk activities moving while focusing effort where it matters most. 

• Embraces open data and modern digital standards to reduce duplication and improve cumulative-effects management. 

When new guidance like the SCA takes engineering expertise into account, policy enables new infrastructure and design projects to avoid sensitive areas, minimize residual effects, and deliver verified ecological outcomes that benefit Ontarians and our environment.