Wetlands are and will become…

Wetlands are and will become an increasingly important buffer from worse and worse flooding caused by climate change and more and more of the landscape being covered by developments - especially impermiable developments. It is important to keep as many wetlands intact as we can - especially provincially significant ones. Building on floodplains and filling wetlands for building will not only cause irreparable damage it will Ontario taxpayers huge costs in damages and escallating insurance costs. What is the point of building more homes if they will high risk financially to homeowners and the province (expect liability costs) and have high ecological costs as well? These provisions only benefit a few already wealthy developers connected with the Conservative Party.

The provisions proposed for the Ontario Wetland Evaluation System along with the spawl development of Bill 23 will destroy Ontario - we'll become a have not province. I am a knowledge worker and have flexibiliy in where I work and live. The implications of Bill 23, especialy to OWES, building on the green belt and greenlighting sprawl instead of doing the important work to stimulate smart compact cities (as per the provincial policy statement - PPS - that your government put in place in 2020) are making me reconsider living in Ontario. I am not the only one. Who wants to live in a polluted, concrete covered wasteland that is not climate resilient and thus expensive and unsafe. Stop and throw this hastily conceived boondoggle for developers and come up with a plan that makes Ontario an attractive and liveable place in future.

The provisions of OWES that are objectionable and need to be thrown out:

- Breaking the evaluation of wetland complexs up into small wetlands. This will result in the gradual dismantling of wetlands with all the consequant impacts on our climate resilience, economy, homeowner costs, liability of province, and ecological systems on which we depend for clean water, air and lands. Wetland complexes must be mandatorily evaluated as a whole and not piece meal as proposed.

- The Province will have no role in reviewing or approving wetland evaluations, will no longer keep wetland evaluation files and 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. There will be no stewards for these provincially significants lands and they will be left to deteriorate. They are provincially signifcant for a reason, and just cause some developers want to do cheap and easy development on them, doesn't make them no longer provincially significant. It makes the Ford government culpable in destroying provincial crown assets.

- the fox guarding the hen house approach for evaluation of wetlands, whereby the person who pays for evaluation of a wetland (the developer) is the only one with the authority to say its value. This is a serious conflict of interest, and unacceptable from an ethical and democratic perspective.

I demand that the Province continue its role in the management of Provincially Significant Wetlands and that municipalities be given the authority to review and approve wetland evaluations.

Eastern Ontario resident - who will NEVER vote PC again if this bill and the strong mayor bills pass.