taking away the review and…

taking away the review and commenting authority of conservation authorities is a dangerous step backwards to our 1960s/1970s era of planning. The whole point of conservation authorities is to protect the natural environment and urban infrastructure from natural hazards through planning and management of a watershed. If you take away their ability to do this than what is the point of them. Municipalities do not have the technical skill to pick up this slack. Building homes faster should not come at the expense of proper planning and due diligence. Many areas of the province already have flooding issues that will get even worse with climate change. We need stricter rules regarding construction around floodplains, wetlands, and other natural features to avoid the mistakes of the past and the millions of dollars of damage they cause every year. Wetlands deserve protection as they have huge benefits to cities and the environment through flood mitigation, carbon sequestration, erosion control, climate regulation, not to mention the positive benefit to wildlife. Developers should be required to plan construction with our shared future in mind. We need development, but it must be done in a way that protects the natural environment and its function, as well as protecting said developments from future climate catastrophes and damages. The provincial government promised to protect greenbelt lands and to not remove any part of it. Removing sections at will because youd like to build there is ridiculous. You cant just take a piece away and add it somewhere else, that defeats the point of having it protected in the first place. agriculture and natural lands are critically important to ontario and must be left intact. This bill is ripe with issues, too numerous to count. it requires heavy revision and increased public and private sector consultation.