The area where I live, the…

The area where I live, the Quinte region, currently has 100 Provincially Significant Wetlands throughout the watershed.  According to staff at Quinte Conservation, changes to the wetland evaluation system would mean that there would only be 1 Provincially Significant Wetland remaining, representing a 99% loss to Quinte region’s wetlands. 

In Prince Edward County, part of the Quinte region, we need to protect our wetlands, especially our Provincially Significant wetlands.

The entire County of Prince Edward has been identified as a Highly Vulnerable Aquifer in the Quinte Region Source Protection Plan – that means our drinking water is at risk and highly susceptible to contamination from development and industry. Our wetlands are our best protection against this as they get water into our aquifers while filtering out its contaminants.

During the months of May through August, Prince Edward County has the lowest average precipitation of any county in Ontario. Those are the months when demand for water peaks – for agriculture for the growing season and for the height of tourism when our population expands enormously.

Due to climate change, Prince Edward County is experiencing increasing weather volatility; wind storms; frequent ice storms; unpredictable thaws and extraordinary flooding events; unpredictable long-term effects of longer droughts; soil erosion and greater risk of fire.

Concretely, these effects have caused in recent years:
- $1.7 million in County expenses related to flood disaster;
- More than $7.5 million for crop insurance claims due to drought;
- Unknown losses to under –insurance costs;
- 100 % increase in hauling water costs for farmers and residents;
- Extreme flooding in 2017 and 2019.

Our inland Provincially Significant and other wetlands pull water into the ground so it is there when we need it. As they do so they filter out contaminants, protecting our drinking water, especially in rural areas where we have no built infrastructure. Our few remaining Provincially significant coastal wetlands protect our highly vulnerable shoreline during storm surges. Our wetlands play a huge role in flood prevention, drought mitigation and erosion control. They also store an enormous amount of carbon. They are extremely beautiful and provide habitat for our exceptional biodiversity, a big draw for tourists to our area. Our wetlands are our best defence against climate change and are important economic drivers for our largest industries, agriculture and tourism. And they do it all for free.

In recognition of this fact, Prince Edward County mandated a 50 m setback from ALL wetlands in their new Official Plan. To address our problems with drought and shortage of groundwater, our Official Plan only allows a single subdivision in rural areas. We need the 120 m setback to protect our PSWs, all of whose protection depends on the evaluation points gotten by providing Endangered and Threatened Species habitat. The presence of those species lets us know which wetlands are working best to recharge our ground water and protect us from flooding and erosion.

The costs listed above during extreme weather years (flooding and drought) were incurred with the existence of 26 PSWs in Prince Edward County, including some potential PSWs not yet identified. Imagine what would have happened had they all been denigrated or filled in by development. We need more protections for our wetlands to support the growing population of Prince Edward County.

By changing the O.W.E.S. classification system, our existing Provincially Significant Wetlands could lose their status and protections, and our un-evaluated wetlands are unlikely to meet the standard for additional protection without the points for Endangered and Threatened Species. The proposed changes are not scientifically based and will devaluate the wetlands we desperately need to protect.

Loss of wetlands will impact wildlife, climate change, water quality/quantity, tourism and recreation, and will result in the need for more infrastructure through the creation of stormwater ponds which will require more maintenance and monitoring, necessitating the need increase to municipal taxes yet again and negatively affect the ability of the wetlands to offset flooding.

Prince Edward County has wetlands that do a lot of this costly work for them. We are at risk of losing this precious natural infrastructure if the proposed changes to the O.W.E.S are implemented as our wetlands will no longer qualify for optimal protection.

I imagine the same is true for other parts of Ontario. We need to keep and protect our existing wetlands which have taken a long time to evolve to do the work they do.

Recommendation: That the province re-engage the multi-stakeholder Conservation Authority (CA) Working Group and work with the working group to determine the unintentional negative implications of these proposed changes, and develop better alternatives, prior to proceeding with current proposed amendments.