Subject: ERO-019-6216…

Subject: ERO-019-6216 Comments as submitted on November 21, 2022
Negative Impact of Bill 23 on Ontario Greenbelt and Natural Resources

I am writing to express my opposition to Bill 23 and associated policy proposals that would weaken environmental protection and undermine public involvement in land use planning and wise decision-making. I am most concerned about the following:

1. Removal of my right to appeal on planning and environmental matters that affect the future welfare of my community and Ontario’s natural resources;

2. Proposed restrictions on the power of conservation authorities (CAs) to regulate and/or prohibit development that negatively impacts wetlands, rivers or streams, to provide expert review of planning applications, and to appeal unwise planning decisions;

3. Removal of the role of seven regional municipalities (Simcoe, Durham, Halton, Peel, Niagara, Waterloo and York) in planning matters, thereby eliminating their coordinated efforts to protect farmlands and natural areas, to determine optimal locations for development and infrastructure, and to effectively and efficiently deliver municipal services;

4. Drastic amendments to the Ontario Wetland Evaluation System (OWES), ensuring that very few wetlands in Ontario, and perhaps none in the future, will be deemed provincially significant and be protected from adverse land development;

5. Replacement of the current Provincial Policy Statement with a new policy instrument highly geared to facilitating unchecked development; and

6. Creation of a natural heritage offset policy including “pay to slay” fund that leads to extremely risky land use trade-offs, where natural areas and farmlands are sacrificed on the faulty premise that they can be recreated or restored elsewhere.

In the face of unprecedented and accelerating biodiversity loss and the ever worsening climate crisis, it is vital that your government do its utmost to protect the farmland, wetlands, forests, and nature that sustain us and are essential to our lives.

As Ontario’s Housing Affordability Task Force said most clearly in its 2022 report, we don’t need to sacrifice environmental quality to address the current housing crisis because “a shortage of land isn’t the cause of the problem.” (p. 10) There is a vast supply of land already available for housing development within existing municipal settlement boundaries.

I urge you to 1) withdraw all the Bill 23 amendments likely to weaken the protection of farmland and natural heritage; and 2) retain and uphold the role of citizens, formal appeals, CAs and regional municipalities in land use planning & decision-making process.

Yours most sincerely with our fervent hopefulness for a better world,
Ontario Citizen, Farmer, Biologist, Resident and Community Volunteer