Yes, and that is exactly why to slow down for a moment. For most activities the Species Conservation Act does let you register and proceed without waiting for ministry approval, which is a real time saving. But three things are easy to miss.
First, register-first is not assess-never. You still have to correctly determine whether your activity affects a protected species or its habitat, whether it is a registrable activity or one of the higher-risk activities that still needs a permit, and what your conservation plan must contain. Get that judgment wrong and it no longer gets caught by a reviewer; it surfaces later as an enforcement problem, and the timelines and penalties under the new Act are stricter. Second, the narrowed habitat definition does not erase federal obligations, which still apply to species and lands covered by federal law. Third, the December 31, 2026 transition deadline applies if you are carrying older authorizations. Register-first rewards proponents who invest in a defensible assessment up front, and punishes the ones who treat registration as a formality.