Ontario’s election opportunity for the animals

Why do we need a better Ontario government?

Animal Alliance has been directly involved in Ontario and federal politics for over 30 years. Canadian political history is clear. In Canada and Ontario, minority governments make better governments. You can be sure, if Doug Ford had been leading a minority government these past four years, he would not have been able to target, attack, and destroy so much of the animals’ and the environment’s protections. 

But reducing or eliminating protections for animals and the environment are not unique to Conservative governments. Premier Kathleen Wynne’s Liberal government gutted Ontario’s endangered species protections. Premier Bob Rae’s Ontario NDP government opened old growth forests to loggers, despite promising he would not, exactly what Premier John Horgan’s BC NDP government is doing today. And, Premier Rae vetoed his elected members banning cosmetic and household product animal testing. 

Below is a list of just a few of the animal and environmental protection injustices the Ontario government, led by Doug Ford, has committed over the last four years of majority rule.

Environmental Injustices:

1. demolished clean energy windmills, ripped out electric vehicle charging stations, and eliminated the electric vehicle rebate program
2. prevented Ontarians weighing in on policy by refusing to obey the law and follow the Environmental Bill of Rights
3. slashed the budget of the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks by about a third in 2019, which resulted in a 9% cut in Environment Ministry staff responsible for inspections and enforcement regarding hazardous spills
4. accelerated plans for two highways through Ontario’s protected Greenbelt, which, incidentally, will enrich developers with ties to the Progressive Conservative Party
5. disempowered and then rebuilt Ontario’s conservation authorities to favour developers
6. appointed as Greenbelt Council chair, Norm Sterling, who is on record as opposed to the Greenbelt
7. repealed the Toxics Reduction Act
8. axed the Environmental Commissioner

Animal Injustices:

1. amended the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act to make cormorants a “game bird” to be hunted, and to allow dead birds to be wasted
2. failed to repeal the entire pit bull ban and amended it creating more problems for the dogs (you can’t own a pit bull in Ontario, but you can own a lion)
3. passed Bill 156, Security from Trespass and Protecting Food Safety Act, an unconstitutional Ag-Gag law which (thanks to people like you) Animal Alliance is now helping challenge in court
4. despite repeated requests, failed to amend the Animals for Research Act to stop the use of people’s lost, stolen, or abandoned pet dogs and cats in research in Ontario
5. allowed coyotes to be killed 365 days of the year and allowed coyote killing contests to continue in Ontario despite being prohibited by the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act
6. formalized the spring bear hunt, that a previous Progressive Conservative government had banned, and made it permanent
7. further gutted protections for endangered species in Ontario; according to Ontario’s Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk “not only is the provincial environment ministry failing to protect species at risk as required by the act, the government is actually enabling harm.”

You can see why Ontario needs a better government. But what kind of government? 

Majority governments (with a few exceptions, of course) tend to produce poor public policy. Minority governments tend to be better for animals, the environment, and, of course, people. As a minority government, for example, the federal Liberals are doing better at protecting the environment and animals than they ever did when they had a majority.

How You Can Help

Please note that we have chosen not to be a charity so that we have the greatest flexibility to fight for the animals. As such, we cannot issue tax receipts.