OTTAWA — Bill Manta would love to see a change to the Species at Risk Act. He says he owns 50 acres of land near Napanee that is severely restricted because that’s where a pair of protected loggerhead shrikes has made their home. He can’t touch the land within 1,200 metres of those "damned birds."

Meantime, the province is planning to update the Species at Risk Act but not in a way that Manta might approve. The province would like to increase the maximum fine from $50,000 and/or up to two years in jail for an individual to a maximum of $250,000 or five years in jail. Corporations would pay a maximum fine of $1 million. While Manta once advised farmers "to shoot the bastards" if they saw a loggerhead shrike on their property, the risks could be getting higher.

The Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) has an issue with the act as well. It urges the province not to increase the fines and to set up a compensation program to pay landowners like Manta when restrictions are placed on their land. A stewardship fund "is something that proves that the carrot is better than the stick," said OFA researcher Peter Jeffrey. "(Ministry of Natural Resources) staff recognizes that stewardship is a key component. We have to have a compensation program for loss of use."

Jeffrey figures the Liberal provincial government hopes to push a change to legislation before the summer recess.