Mayor Lynn Peterson wants to eliminate the red tape forest industries may face with a new Endangered Species Act expected to become official June 30.

Peterson is speaking out to make sure there is a balance with the new provincial legislation designed to protect endangered species, saying it should also protect endangered forestry jobs.

Peterson agrees it needed to be updated, but it should not be done at the cost of logging jobs she said.

The forestry industry has been exempted from the first year of the Act.

The Ontario Forestry Coalition is accusing Premier Dalton McGuinty of breaking his government's commitment to working families. The OFC, which includes area mayors, unions, First Nations and forestry groups, says Ontario's new Endangered Species Act unveiled Thursday shows the premier has reneged on last year's pledge to protect forest companies from red tape and new environmental permits.