Key concerns: 1. Removing…

Key concerns:

1. Removing the ability to complex wetlands as part of the Ontario Wetland Evaluation System (OWES) without any scientific justification fails to account for the fact that in some cases small, seemingly isolated wetlands provide critical ecological and/or hydrological functions as part of a broader natural environment system.

2. This change to OWES, in conjunction with other proposed changes - such as downloading the responsibility of confirming wetland status onto local municipalities and potentially introducing an offsetting policy that could allow for the removal of wetlands irrespective of significance, could facilitate the removal of remnant wetlands in the landscape. This is at a time when the retention and creation of wetands is being recognized as a priority action to help communities mitigate and adapt to climate change risks, such as flooding.