According to scientific…

According to scientific knowledge and personal experience, wetlands provide a variety of unique ecosystem services, including fish and wildlife habitat, climate change mitigation through carbon storage, water filtration, recreational and spiritual significance as well as flood mitigation, among others. I do not believe that the proposed changes to the OWES (combined with the proposed amendments to the Greenbelt Plan) will benefit housing construction through the destruction of precious habitats. There should be better ways to tackle the housing problem, e.g. how (corporate) landlords affect the housing market.

1. It is important for wetland evaluations to be reviewed by arm’s-length agencies with an objective view. Considering that many wetlands cross municipal boundaries, if these same municipalities are responsible for development, as well as preserving natural heritage like wetlands, where do they find the balance and how will the different municipalities determine the level of importance for the wetland?

2. Many wetlands are grouped together and function in complexes but the proposed legislation changes will no longer allow wetlands to be grouped together, treating each wetland as its own entity. Smaller wetlands will most likely not meet the criteria to be provincially significant, and may be open for development. One example is the Lower Duffins Creek Wetland Complex in Pickering.

3. If the "Reproductive Habitat for Endangered or Threatened Species" and "Migration, Feeding or Hibernation Habitat for an Endangered or Threatened Species" sections get scrapped, these wetlands that provide such critical habitat for species at risk will become harder to score and hold provincially significant status.

4. I've also recently learned that while Canada has control over about 25% of the world’s wetlands (350,000 km2 of wetlands in Ontario), the province of Ontario destroys these habitats faster than anyone else. In fact, 68% of the wetlands originally present in southern Ontario were lost by the early 1980s...

Through an understanding and appreciation of our wetlands, we should become leaders in the preservation/conservation of these critical habitats.