I am concerned that the…

I am concerned that the proposed changes to the wetland evaluation system will lead to abuses of the system by private interests with little oversight from conservation authorities or MNRF. The language concerning permitted offsetting is vague and problematic, and will lead to losses of wetlands and other natural heritage features that took hundreds to thousands of years to establish. These features cannot simply be relocated and replaced by engineers. Losses of the functions provided by existing natural heritage, whose removal will be justified using a weakened OWES, will lead to expensive and potentially catastrophic consequences for homeowners and municipalities left to cover the costs of disaster mitigation under climate change conditions. Finally, removing wetland complexing is completely antithetical to current scientific understanding of watershed health; it will only exacerbate habitat fragmentation and lead to further losses of provincially significant wetlands and other undesignated wetlands, wood lots and natural vegetation cover. I urge the government to reject the proposed changes to OWES and to recognize that evaluating wetlands properly, enforcing the rules for developers and preserving existing wetlands are critical to the health of Ontario’s environment.