Conservation authorities across Ontario are calling on the provincial government to reevaluate newly proposed legislation that would allow housing to be built on conservation lands.
The Ontario government recently released several proposed legislative changes in an effort to address housing supply issues in the province.
However, Conservation Ontario has raised several concerns about the province’s proposals, which include preventing municipalities from entering into agreements with conservation authorities to review planning applications, removing “conservation of lands” and “pollution” as considerations in permit decisions, freezing development fees, and allowing the use of conservation lands to support housing development.
“Many of the things brought forward in this current legislation just aren’t practical and it will actually slow development down not speed it up,” said Mark Peacock, CAO and secretary-treasurer for the Lower Thames Valley Conservation Authority.
Ontario’s 36 conservation authorities own around 147,000 hectares of land, which is made up of wetlands, forests, moraines, and other ecologically sensitive lands.
While many of these lands offer trails and other outdoor amenities, they also protect important sources of drinking water and help to prevent flooding and erosion. As well, they contribute to climate change adaptation measures by capturing emissions, cooling temperatures, and protecting water quality.
Peacock said conservation authorities are calling on the Ontario government to re-establish a multi-stakeholder conservation authority working group, which helped guide the province during the last round of changes to the Conservation Authorities Act. The group would be comprised of members from conservation authorities and municipalities, along with the development and agriculture sector.
“The province has a challenge, they want to move forward with development and make sure it’s done properly, but done in a timely way,” said Peacock. “We have no problem with speeding up development and addressing the development crises we have in Ontario. But we don’t believe many of the recommendations actually get us there.”