According to the ERO posting…

According to the ERO posting, the purpose of the proposed OWES overhaul is to support the
construction of 1.5 million new housing units over the next ten years by streamlining the
wetland evaluation process. This purpose is misguided, given that a shortage of land isn’t the
cause of the housing shortage (Housing Affordability Task Force, 2022, p.10). The amount of
land already zoned and ready for development within existing municipal settlement boundaries
far exceeds what is needed to meet long range housing targets. That includes, for example,
88,000 acres within the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area alone.

MNRF is proposing to no longer recognize the presence of endangered or threatened
species in the OWES process, a criterion which is a key factor in determining provincial
significance. Currently, the presence of endangered or threatened species automatically
qualifies the wetland as provincially significant. But with the proposed changes, species at
risk will be considered only as “provincially tracked species,” worth far less in the evaluation.
This major change would affect the scoring of most wetlands in Ontario, leaving many of
them, and the significant species that rely on them, vulnerable to development.