Regarding the following,…

Regarding the following, given the recent changes to Federal policies, the Ministry forecasts may already be outdated. Given the outflow of population from Ontario the forecasts may be very wrong. Forecasts are just that and can be wrong on either the high or the low side. Recommend that StatsCanada numbers would be more reflective of actual. Alternatively, municipalities have generally been successful using a variety of sources for its population forecasts for use in development charge studies. Restricting them to Ministry forecasts is not a good way to plan for the future as unfortunately, government Ministry's have specific biases that should not stand in the way of forecasting.

"• Require municipalities to base growth forecasts on Ministry of Finance population projections (new), with transition for municipalities in the Greater Golden Horseshoe to continue to use forecasts issued by the province through Schedule 3 of A Place to Grow until more current forecasts are available to 2051, as informed by guidance provided by the province (updated) "

Regarding the following, while the policy is sound, the changes to the Ontario Wetland Evaluation System to allow de-complexing Provincially Significant Wetlands and excluding Ministry oversight of such requests frankly makes no sense. By leaving the decision to an unregulated profession (environmental consultants) is not good planning or good science and seems to contradict the proposed policy by removing a tool of protection available to a municipality.

"Require municipalities in central and southern Ontario to identify natural heritage systems and require municipalities across the province to protect provincially-significant natural heritage features and areas"