This week, Mr. Mike Schreiner, Leader of the Green Party of Ontario and MPP for Guelph, visited the Waterloo Wetland lab to discuss Bill 23 and the importance of wetlands in Ontario.
Bill 23, or the More Homes Built Faster Act, is a piece of Ontario housing legislation that “streamlines” dozens of laws to build 1.5 million homes in the next 10 years. Bill 23 made changes to the wetland evaluation system, including changing the definition of a wetland, which could also open them up to development, introduce legislative uncertainty and increase compliance needs.
Dr. Rebecca Rooney, an associate professor in the Department of Biology, is a world expert on biomonitoring and wetland assessment. Her research examines how human-caused and natural ecological disturbances influence wetland communities, including birds, invertebrates and plants. She leads the Waterloo Wetland Laboratory.
Schreiner met with graduate students from Rooney and Dr. Nandita Basu's labs as well as with Rooney herself. Basu, the Canada Research Chair in Global Water Sustainability and Ecohydrology, has demonstrated the importance small wetlands and their contributions to water purification exceed that predicted by their size.
During the visit they discussed proposed changes to the Ontario Wetland Evaluation system that will weaken the protection of wetlands in Ontario, including consideration of species at risk that depend on wetlands for part of their life cycle as well as the elimination of complexing. The complexing rule considered small wetlands ecologically or hydrologically connected if they are situated in a landscape or watershed with other wetlands. Bill 23 eliminated complexing and as a result small peripheral wetlands, which have a huge impact on water quality, are no longer protected.
Developers restore habitat of an equivalent area elsewhere in Ontario in exchange for draining a wetland. The limitations of this approach include the difficulty in tracking the funds and ensuring the building of wetlands elsewhere. Additionally, the ecosystem services that wetlands provide are mostly local in nature so compensation in a different part of the province doesn't restore heritage features where they are lost.
They also discussed some of the challenges graduate students face due to inadequate stipend support and the cost of living rising. The group agreed that Bill 23 wasn’t going to make housing affordable in Ontario.
Related articles:
- Rebecca Rooney discusses wetlands and Bill 23 on Beyond the Bulletin