Dear Representatives, I am…

Dear Representatives,

I am submitting this letter today as a woman who was born in 1994 at a time when the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in our atmosphere was approximately 359 parts per million (ppm) according to the United States’ National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Growing up I went to an elementary school that neighboured a wetland and my love of nature deepened year over year through science classes, Girl Guides of Canada, and summers spent at our many beautiful parks across this great province. I am also submitting this letter as a woman with a Bachelor’s degree in geological science and who has gone home from work only to vomit from heat stroke as I work outdoors and have struggled directly in the face of rising temperatures and rising anxieties about what the world will look like in 2059 when I will be old enough to collect my Canadian Pension Plan (CPP) benefits. In this letter I would like to take a minute of your time to review three main issues that I have with Bill 5 as a citizen who loves this province. I want to draw your attention to the flaws in protection for endangered species that derive directly from this new definition of habitat. Then I would like you to consider the devastation to human health and safety which could be enacted in our urban areas if the Special Economic Zones Act is applied to exempt projects and proponents from the requirements under the Conservation Authorities Act. Finally I would like to highlight how policies such as these can have devastating impacts on the mental health of young people and those of us who know we will be around to see the long-term consequences of short-sighted economic gains.

Part 1: An Inadequate Definition of Habitat

I invite you to imagine living in a 500 square foot apartment in a city where you have no car, no public transit, no bike lanes, and no crosswalk. There is no grocery store for five kilometers in any direction and no parks. You have nowhere you can move to if you decide to have children and no opportunities to socialize with other adults. This is the picture of life for endangered species in Ontario under the new definition of habitat. Bill 5 redefines habitat for animals as a dwelling-place and the area immediately around a dwelling place for the purposes of breeding, rearing, staging, wintering, or hibernating. There is no provision to protect land area needed for hunting, foraging, or other feeding and there is no protection for habitat needed for migration. In the metaphor presented earlier you can have however many adults and children you would like in your 500 square foot apartment but you will need to walk through traffic for 5 kilometers to find food.

If a metaphor doesn’t help you to see the danger associated with a habitat definition limited to dwelling place then I would like you to consider the following true story from my work in the construction industry: I received a call to inspect a site where workers had been preparing to take down a fence by removing junk from a yard to clear the work path toward the fence. They could hear the calls of a robin and got concerned there may be a nest at risk of disturbance. We found the robin’s nest built on some vegetation climbing the fence with nestlings in it. The nest had previously been hidden by the junk which was removed and was now exposed to the elements. The next day we returned to find a raccoon had eaten the nestlings. While this was an accident the new definition of habitat would open the way for interpretations which would allow for animal dwelling places such as bird nests to be left exposed to the elements and visible to predators.

I raised these issues to my MPP and received an automated email stating that the government is taking a “modern approach” to species conservation which will focus on preventing and mitigating activities that have the greatest negative impact on species. There are 209 species at risk in Ontario and most of those are at risk due to loss of habitat. Twenty percent of these endangered species rely on wetland habitat.

I call upon the Government of Ontario to add a defined buffer zone around habitat of 60 meters to ensure that animals and plants are protected against bad actors interpreting this law in its most literal sense for economic gains. It is cruel to put plants and animals on house arrest and destroy the communities which drove their decisions to set down roots and build their dwelling there in the first place.

Part 2: Clean Water Act and Human Health

The CTC Source Protection Plan defines source water as “any untreated water found in rivers, lakes, and underground aquifers which is used for the supply of raw water for municipal drinking water systems.” The Toronto and Region Source Protection Area Assessment Report states that 97% of the population within its jurisdiction receives drinking water from surface water intakes located in Lake Ontario. You, dear reader, likely drink water from Lake Ontario. Source Protection Plans and Assessment Reports are documents that are written in collaboration between municipalities, regional authorities, and conservation authorities to help enact local observance of the Clean Water Act. The Clean Water Act was a reaction to the disaster which struck in May of 2000 when heavy rains washed Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria into a well that provided water to the municipal water system in the small town of Walkerton, Ontario. A
series of human and mechanical failures allowed the bacteria to get through the treatment
system and into the municipal water supply. As a result, seven people died and more than
2,300 became ill.

Bill 23 has already removed the power to comment on development plans in regards to pollution control from the Conservation Authorities. As Bill 5 is currently drafted there are no limitations on which acts, regulations, and by-laws a proponent or project may become exempt from. I am terrified that this Government of Ontario will use Bill 5 to grant the freedom to contravene the Clean Water Act to developers. Lake Ontario is under threat from pollution and so is the water many of us rely upon for drinking.

I call upon the Government of Ontario to add clarifying criteria to the Special Economic Zones Act which will state that under no circumstances can any project or proponent be exempt from requirements under the Clean Water Act or a Source Protection Plan.

Part 3: Wetlands and Human Health
Further to the risks to clean drinking water I outlined in Part 2 there is a risk to both human health and endangered species in Ontario in the threat that the Special Economic Zones act poses to wetlands. According to Ontario Nature, Ontario is home to 24% of Canada’s wetlands and yet southern Ontario has lost nearly 70% of its wetlands to development. Wetlands provided ecosystem services which are benefits that people obtain directly or indirectly from nature. Wetlands have been well studied and provide services to the residents of Ontario including water filtration, flood control, carbon sequestration, recreational, and spiritual opportunities. A study published by Troy and Bagstad in 2009 estimated that Ontario’s urban and sub-urban wetlands act as “natural factories” to filter water and produce at least $40 billion in economic benefits each year. The E. Coli bacteria which caused the Walkerton crisis is just one harmful pollutant which can be broken down in wetlands before the water enters our intakes for human consumption.

Additional benefits of protecting wetlands includes:
Wetlands protect us from floods by storing and slowing down the flow rate of water from snowmelt and storms by gradually releasing that water over a long period of time.
Erosion reduction by the stabilizing effects of the roots of wetland vegetation, reducing wave action, slowing water currents, and helping with water quality.
Climate change mitigation and resilience by absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and storing it as peat, acting as a carbon sink.
Wetlands also absorb heat to reduce the frequency and impact of extreme weather events due to climate change.
Recreation & Tourism wetlands are popular places for outdoor recreation activities like photography, bird watching, canoeing, fishing and hunting
Food Source wetlands can provide opportunities to sustainably harvest food such as wild rice, cranberries, waterfowl and fish.

If the Special Economic Zones Act is applied to exempt developers from their legal obligation to stay out of wetlands and watercourses we, the Ontario tax payers will have to pay for that $40 billion a year in water purification functions that the wetlands are currently providing by existing.

I also call upon the Government of Ontario to safeguard wetlands in urban watersheds where the water purification ecosystem service provided by the wetland feature to the public outweighs the short-term economic benefits.

Part 4: Mental Health and Climate Anxiety

On April 30, 2025 the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was measured as 430 ppm by NOAA. That marks a nearly 20% increase from the year I was born and if we continue on this track there will be 501 ppm in the atmosphere by the time I retire and it will be a retirement marked by sweltering indoors praying the energy grid doesn’t fail and that my children will have forgiven me for bringing them into this world.

The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) had this to say in regards to climate change and mental health on their website:

“The global climate crisis threatens our health and well-being through its direct effects (e.g., major storms and heat waves) and indirect effects (e.g., exposure to air pollution and disease). The risks are profound across physical and mental health domains (Romanello et al., 2022 [1], Cissé, McLeman, and Adams, et al., 2022 [2]).

The broad-ranging mental health effects include increased depression and anxiety, exposure to violence, substance use and trauma. There are also far-reaching implications related to feelings of grief, helplessness and hopelessness as people struggle to remain optimistic amidst increasingly negative forecasts about the future (Zhang et al., 2021[3]).

The climate crisis is also a threat multiplier, which means it increases health inequities for many demographic groups, including: Black populations, children and youth, Indigenous Peoples, older adults, and people experiencing poverty (Berry & Schnitter, 2022 [4]). “

I would count myself as one of those who feels grief and anxiety when confronted with the challenges of climate change and the solution to these challenges is no to open mines without thought or care for local communities, endangered species, or the benefits of natural landscapes. Protection of urban and suburban wetlands is also the protection of third spaces where people can exercise, meet with friends, and engage spiritually with nature. Wetlands as stated previously also act as a carbon sink by sequestering CO2 from the atmosphere into peat. Preserving and restoring wetlands provides both a space for Ontarians to escape the increasing global disasters through recreation but also could help to protect them from those disasters by slowing or reversing the build up of carbon in our atmospheres.

I call upon the Government of Ontario to safeguard all wetlands in Ontario where the carbon sequestration, recreational, and spiritual ecosystem services for the public outweigh the short-term economic benefits of development.

Sincerely,
A Resident of Whitby, Ontario