To Whom It May Concern, Our…

To Whom It May Concern,

Our family writes today with considerable concerns about Bill 185.

This absurd omnibus bill stands to decimate Waterloo Region with the removal of Planning Authority and the decimation of all of our Regional environmental protections that had to be created when we were left out of the provincial greenbelt but still assigned the same growth as the rest of the GTA that got considerable Greenbelt protection.

We have the most vulnerable water supply in Ontario - totally dependent on local groundwater recharge areas and living within the carrying capacity of our watersheds as unlike all other upper-tier regions losing Planning Authority, we have no pipelines to the Great Lakes nor other water sources. Thus, the region with most vulnerable water and no backup will have the least amount of environmental protection for our entire Waterloo Region.

We need see Planning Authority retained by the Region of Waterloo, even if some aspects of approval authority are delegated to lower-tier regions. Our Regional Official plan is needed to facilitate development, growth and housing while adequately protecting the limited resources all this growth will depend on. Thus, we could have the Region still focussing on facilitating growth, water, groundwater recharge area protection, etc while lower-tier regions grow independently provided their overall plans are in conformity with the larger Regional plan.

In addition to Planning Authority, we need to ensure that third party appeals are retained and encouraged, changes to urban boundaries should be highly restricted and only during MCR processes.

In summary:

- Planning Authority should be retained by the Region of Waterloo, our Countryside Line remain intact, and forced boundary expansions eliminated,
- If Planning Authority is removed Greenbelt expansion is required to adequately protect the Waterloo Moraine,
- Changes to Settlement Area Boundaries should not be permitted outside of regular municipal comprehensive review periods,
- Planning Act Sections dealing with limiting Third Party Appeals should be rescinded just as they were when Bill 23 attempted to limit eliminate these important citizen rights,
- Proposed changes to MZO’s could be good but require more understanding,
- It is good to see the absurd Community Infrastructure and Housing Accelerator (CHIA) introduced by Bill 109 rescinded,
- The Attorney General should disclose all communications with municipalities and developers requesting changes to third party appeal rights,
- The Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT) should be required to permit third party appeals,

You can also learn from the Canadian Environmental Law Association's (CELA) excellent submission with a focus on how the loss of public appeal rights disproportionally impact under-resourced communities.

Please ensure our family has a bright future with the water, farmland, and environment needed.

Thank you!