The proposed changes to the…

The proposed changes to the Ontario Wetland Evaluation System (OWES) are alarming for many reasons. Wetland complexes must be evaluated as a whole and NOT on a piece-meal basis. Also, he Province must maintain a role in the management of Provincially Significant Wetlands and if not, municipalities must be given the authority and resources to review and approve wetland evaluations.

First, under these proposed changes, wetlands complexes will no longer be evaluated as a whole and instead will be be broken up. As the threshold for significance remains the same, individual wetlands will have to attain the same score as the much larger wetland complexes to remain significant. This will make it almost impossible for individual components of large wetland complexes to be evaluated as provincially significant.This will lead to the dismantling of Provincially Significant Wetlands, and their destruction. The severity of ecological impacts of this are unforeseeable, but will harm ecological communities, human communities and the economy.

Further, if these changes are implemented, the Province will not review or approve wetland evaluations, will no longer keep wetland evaluation files and will not maintain significant wetland mapping or provide information for use in wetland evaluations.

These responsibilities will be delegated to the municipalities, without additional budgets or provincial assistance, and the municipalities will have NO authority to review and approve wetland evaluations submitted by landowners.

The wetland evaluator will only be accountable for the objectivity and accuracy of the wetland evaluation to the person paying for it.
As consequence, the property owner or developer seeking to remove the significant wetland designation will be the only authority determining if the wetland evaluation is valid. This is intolerable from an ethical and democratic perspective.

It is complete ecological madness to threaten wetlands in this way, as they are extremely important ecosystems that provide homes to biodiverse ecological communities, and they provide essential services that humans depend on. As the climate crisis accelerates, wetlands play an incredibly important role in carbon sequestration.