I cannot support a…

I cannot support a government whose policies are so narrow minded and Dismissive toward our environment. I am deeply concerned with their proposed changes to policies regarding wetland evaluation. After reading the proposed changes I have made some notes:

Owes has already completed the assessment of significant wetlands, using tried and true methods created to allow unwarranted destruction of the said lands. The assessment was made in two parts:
a) determine the wetlands that are significant, and
b) determine the boundaries of significant wetlands.
As these assessments were made by highly qualified individuals with vast knowledge of the significance of wetlands, it is counter productive to open up reviews on the assessments.
The Ontario government is proposing to usurp these assessments not because they feel they were unfairly or improperly done. They are doing so to feed these sensitive areas to developers under the guise of providing more housing. More housing is definitely needed, but not at the cost of our environment. They can and must build these houses in unused or vacant properties that lie within the municipal boundaries. There are plenty of these areas readily available to them. They must also look at creating more dense developments and halt further urban sprawl.

In this legislation, the government proposes “to allow for further streamlining of development decisions by removing the requirement for the ministry to review and confirm wetland evaluation results.” In other words, they propose to remove the ministry’s ability to assess wetlands prior to decisions being made to allow development. This is absolutely unacceptable. Keep the ministry reviews in place, do not allow developers to make decisions that they lack the knowledge to make.

Under the proposed changes to Owes evaluation document is this one:

“All wetland units that were previously evaluated as part of a wetland complex do not need to be re-evaluated at the same time. There is no requirement to update the wetland evaluation that applied to an entire wetland complex. The evaluation is considered a point-in-time document used to assign a status (significant or not) to each wetland that the evaluation covered (i.e., all wetland units that had previously been complexed together). Previous wetland evaluation documentation can be used as a source of information when re- evaluating a formerly complexed wetland unit.”

This is particularly disturbing as it then allows a previously assessed wetland system to be attacked and possibly developed bit by bit. It is an attack of attrition that will lead to diminishing wetlands as urban areas encroach ever closer to the heart of every wetland system.

Immediately following this proposal is another that is equally disturbing:

“Mapping updates to previously evaluated wetlands: Wetlands are dynamic natural systems and the outer boundary of a wetland can be updated if new information becomes available or if the extent of the wetland on the land changes. A mapping update can be undertaken without undertaking a re- evaluation. Evaluations are point-in-time assessments to determine a wetland’s status (significant or not) and are not to be ‘updated’. At times decision makers may require a re-evaluation of the wetland to confirm its status.

As wetlands are, as said, dynamic and have ever changing boundaries it seems inconceivable to allow reassessment of their boundaries because what is really being said is the government wants to shrink those boundaries when urban sprawl meets them.”

Further on in the document another proposed change is puzzling:

“Although site visits are an important part of any wetland evaluation, it is not expected that a wetland evaluator will traverse the entire wetland. Existing information prepared from earlier field visits allow the evaluator to utilize information collected about the site
_____________________________________________________________________ Proposed Updates to the Ontario Wetland Evaluation System 2022-10-25
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by others.”

Who are “others?” If, by others, the government is referring to third parties paid by developers, then this action is not acceptable. Leave the evaluation process as it is to maintain impartiality.

Soon after this change was proposed, the government stated that a completed evaluation must be considered an open file. In other words, no matter what the evaluation, a wetland will never be safe from developers. It is a totally unacceptable position and one that assures continued urban encroachment.

In my reading of this document, it is blatantly apparent that the government has declared open season on wetland protection in favour of uncontrolled development. Housing at any cost is irresponsible and will cause wide reaching and irreversible damage to the environment that we depend on for our existence.