Canadian Great Lakes Region Update
Some Extra Help for Ontario’s Wetlands
By Linda Pim, Ontario Nature
On March 1 of this year, a new
policy came into effect in Ontario
that affords better protection for
some wetlands, new Provincial Policy
Statement (PPS) under the Planning
Act.
Southern Ontario, where most of the
province’s farmland is located and
most of the population is based, has lost at least 70 percent of
its wetlands since the time that European settlement began
(about the year 1800) due to various human uses of the land.
We have therefore lost the vital ecological functions provided
by wetlands (fish and wildlife habitat, groundwater recharge
and discharge, water quality protection, flood and erosion
control) and the increased biodiversity that wetlands provide.
The remaining wetlands, both in the north and the south,
are havens of biological richness, and include marshes,
swamps, bogs and fens.
In the version of the PPS that was in effect from March 1996 to
February 2005, there was a prohibition on development and
site alteration in “Provincially Significant Wetlands” (PSWs)
located south and east of the Canadian (Precambrian) Shield,
that hulk of granite bedrock that sheaths northern Ontario
and extends in a broad “V” into southeastern Ontario near
Kingston on Lake Ontario.
But there were two problems with the 1996 policy: First, the
area of Ontario south and east of the Shield is a relatively small
part of the province, although it is the area experiencing the
most intense development pressure. It includes all of the Lakes
Erie and Ontario basins and part of the Lake Huron basin. For
the rest of the province,
development was permitted
in PSWs as long as
it could be demonstrated,
usually by developers’
consultants, that there
would be no negative
impacts on the features
or functions of the wetland.
Second, in making
their land use planning
decisions, municipalities
only needed to “have
regard for” the policies in
the PPS, which could
mean as little as reading
it and putting it back on
the shelf. With a very
few notable exceptions,
such as the Cloud Bay
Provincially Significant Wetland on Lake Superior south of
Thunder Bay where a citizens’ group partly funded by GLAHNF
saved the PSW, wetlands on the Shield – including all of
northern Ontario – received very poor protection.
The new Provincial Policy Statement does two important
things for wetlands: It extends much further northward the
“no development” line for PSWs. All lands in what the Ontario
Ministry of Natural Resources calls Ecoregions 5E, 6E and 7E
benefit from the “no development”rule.The line now begins in
the west roughly at Montreal River near Sault Ste. Marie and
runs east to Lake Timiskaming on the Quebec border, well
north of North Bay. By shifting the “no development” line this
far north, the area of Ontario covered by the new policy has
more than doubled. The second improvement is that
municipalities must make their planning decisions “consistent
with” the PPS, rather than merely “have regard for” it. This
latter improvement had been advocated by environmental
groups for many years – and we won!
On the face of it, there may seem to be a gap, and there is: The
“no development” area excludes almost all of the Lake
Superior Basin in Ontario. It also excludes the vast area of
Ontario north of the three-ecoregions’ northerly limit.
However, there is at least some new hope for both Lake
Superior and all the other Great Lakes in that, for the first time,
the PPS now states that there will be no development and site
alteration in “significant coastal wetlands.” The “significant”
part is defined through a wetlands evaluation system
established by the Ministry of Natural Resources.“Coastal wetlands”
are defined as any wetland located on one of the Great
Lakes or their connecting channels (Lake St. Clair,
St. Mary’s, St. Clair, Detroit, Niagara and St. Lawrence Rivers);
or any other wetland that is on a tributary to any of the
above-noted water bodies and lies entirely or partly
downstream of a line located two kilometres (1-1/4 miles)
upstream of the 1:100 year floodline of the large water body to
which the tributary is connected.
Happily for wetlands but sadly for all other natural features in
Ontario, wetlands were the only class of features that were
accorded extended protection in the new Provincial Policy
Statement. And even for wetlands, there’s a catch – the definition
of “development” excludes most infrastructure projects,
meaning that a road, highway or sewer line could be rammed
right through the middle of a Provincially SignificantWetland.
But Ontario grassroots groups can be counted on to fight to try
to protect every wetland in their communities, whatever the
lines are on the maps or the words are in the definitions.
To read the Provincial Policy Statement, the direct link is:
www.mah.gov.on.ca/userfiles/page_attachments/Library/1/78
9108_ppsenglish.pdf. The wetlands policy is in Section 2.1.
Look at the map and definitions near the end of the PPS.
Disclaimer:
The interpretations and conclusions presented in this newsletter represent the opinions of the individual authors. They in no way represent the views of the Tip of the Mitt Watershed Council, the C.S. Mott Foundation, subscribers, donors, or any organization mentioned in this publication.
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