About Watersheds Canada:…

About Watersheds Canada:

Watersheds Canada is a registered Canadian charity (863555223RR0001) committed to providing programs and resources to communities across the country that work to engage and help waterfront property owners enhance and protect the health of lakes and rivers through the promotion of sustainable development practices.

Comments on Proposed Changes to the Planning Act:

The Bill will significantly weaken municipalities’ use of Site Plan Control (Section 41 of the Planning Act) in regulating waterfront development.
• Limiting the application of site plan control to residential buildings containing 10 or more units removes a municipality’s ability to review and apply conditions to single, detached dwellings, the main form of development affecting the health and sustainable use of Ontario’s shorelines.
• These proposed changes were written with urban development in mind, yet they have significant implications for rural communities. Blanket changes based on urban planning should not be applied to wetlands and freshwater areas.

This Bill fails to support a municipality’s ability to restore or maintain vegetated shoreland buffers to protect Ontario’s freshwater.
• Even if the above points were addressed, the proposed exclusion of exterior design from the Site Plan Control review process removes a municipality’s authority to impose landscaping/vegetation requirements as a condition for approval to mitigate the environmental impacts of development (e.g., impacts of surface runoff on water quality).
• The Provincial Policy Statement briefly mentions the importance of protecting and restoring Ontario’s shorelines to protect water quality (s2.2.1), however, municipalities are given very little guidance and tools to ensure their protection in the face of proposed development. Site Plan Control is the main tool used by municipalities to regulate residential waterfront development and protect the adjacent water body. Thus, it would be detrimental to the protection of freshwater resources to exclude exterior design requirements from Site Plan Control.

The Bill removes an individual’s right to appeal land use decisions in their community, limiting this right to the applicant and public entities.
• Taxpayers deserve to be part of the decision-making process, therefore, third-party appeal rights to land use decisions must remain available to individuals.
• Watersheds Canada supporters want to defend nature in their community from rushed private interests that could ultimately neglect local environmental needs and social well being. Individuals have the right to express their concerns and offer their perspectives on how their health, livelihood, and enjoyment may be impacted by local development.

The Bill affects the good work of our organization to protect and restore Ontario’s waterfront areas and freshwater systems.
• We have consulted tens of thousands of concerned waterfront property owners, developers, and municipal staff across Canada and were told that issues of erosion, water quality, biodiversity, and flooding are a major concern of theirs.
• Through the Planning for our Shorelands program, we have been building the capacity of municipal decision-makers by providing education and resources around the scientific benefits of shoreline vegetation and policy tools to support waterfront naturalization in the face of proposed development. This Bill seeks to revoke many of the tools municipalities rely on.
• Over 600 Ontarians have signed our petition against the proposed changes to the Planning Act. It is clear that our network stands against this Bill.