Wetlands are incredibly…

Wetlands are incredibly important ecosystems that have cultural and biological value, and support functions that would otherwise be very costly including carbon sequestration, pollutant immobilization, and flood attenuation. Wetlands and green space such as the green belt also give people access to nature and the outdoors-proven to have physical and mental health benefits. In southern Ontario, it is of utmost importance to conserve our remaining wetlands with stringent protection measures. Wetlands are hundreds to thousands of years in age, and truly cannot be compensated within a reasonable period of time once altered or destroyed. To date, some parts of southern Ontario have lost more than 85% of their wetlands. Thus, it is critical that we treat ALL wetlands as provincially significant unless otherwise proven (as highlighted in 2018 by Environmental Commissioner Dianne Saxe in the Back to Basics report: https://auditor.on.ca/en/content/reporttopics/envreports/env18/Back-to-…). Housing can be expanded and made more affordable by developing on already developed land and through proper land use planning. In short, it is crucial to NOT further streamline development processes because they put wetlands and their invaluable functions at risk, and they take away from the focus of creating affordable housing where sufficient infrastructure already exists.