I am strongly opposed to…

I am strongly opposed to proposed changes in Bill 23 to the Ontario Wetlands Evaluation System (OWES) that...

• Remove consideration of species at risk.
 Twenty percent of Ontario’s species at risk depend on wetlands for all or part of their life cycle and the OWES provides a basis for securing long-term protection of their habitat by identifying and maintaining wetland features, functions and inter-relationships.
• No longer recognize wetland complexes.
 Most wetlands are hydrologically connected to the surrounding landscape, which underscores the importance of recognizing significant connections and including them as part of wetland complexes.
• Eliminate provincial oversight.
 Wetlands require provincial oversight to ensure wetland representation on a provincial scale, wetland evaluator certification and consistency in OWES approach; and to minimize local-level bias.

Southern Ontario has lost over 70% of its original wetland area despite the many valuable services wetlands provide to human settlements including flood attenuation, water purification, erosion control, carbon storage, and recreation and tourism opportunities. Depending on habitat size and quality, wetlands can offer significant cost savings to municipalities.

The changes proposed in Bill 23 are quite shocking. They will result in major losses of wetlands, and will leave municipalities with decreased wetland services at a time when these services are critical for reducing the growing impacts of climate change. While the stated purpose of Bill 23 is to accelerate the provision of housing, Ontario’s Housing Affordability Task Force in their 2022 report stated that land is available for housing without resorting to development in environmentally sensitive areas. This leaves me to wonder whose interests are actually being served by this Bill?