{"id":50154,"date":"2021-02-23T10:35:25","date_gmt":"2021-02-23T10:35:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/environmentaldefence.ca\/?p=28853"},"modified":"2021-02-23T10:35:25","modified_gmt":"2021-02-23T10:35:25","slug":"all-ontario-opposition-parties-vow-to-repeal-new-mechanisms-for-sidestepping-conservation-authorities-and-revoke-development-permits-issued-under-these-new-mechanisms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/02\/23\/all-ontario-opposition-parties-vow-to-repeal-new-mechanisms-for-sidestepping-conservation-authorities-and-revoke-development-permits-issued-under-these-new-mechanisms\/","title":{"rendered":"All Ontario Opposition Parties Vow to Repeal New Mechanisms for Sidestepping Conservation Authorities \u2013 and Revoke Development Permits Issued Under these New Mechanisms"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Ontario<\/div>

Ontario landowners and developers who want to build on floodplains, wetlands and other hazardous or environmentally sensitive lands should think twice before using newly-created political shortcuts to circumvent or overrule Conservation Authorities. That is because all three of Ontario\u2019s major opposition parties have committed to\u00a0<\/span>revoke, without compensation<\/b>, any permits issued using the politicized and grossly inadequate new development approval routes created by last December\u2019s Schedule 6 legislation, as well as repealing the legislation itself completely.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Ontario\u2019s Official Opposition New Democratic Party, as well as the Liberal, and Green parties, have each pledged to restore Conservation Authorities\u2019 powers by repealing completely Schedule 6 of last December\u2019s Bill 229<\/span>, Protect, Support and Recover from COVID-19 Act<\/span><\/i>. Those provisions, which undermine protections against floods, landslides and environmental hazards by hobbling Conservation Authorities, were passed in defiance of a deafening chorus of warnings from independent experts, farmers, municipalities, the general public, the government\u2019s own Greenbelt Council, and from Conservation Authorities themselves. They were designed \u2013 and are already being used in conjunction with Minister\u2019s Zoning Orders\u00a0\u2013 to unleash residential and commercial sprawl in environmentally sensitive areas, like a Provincially Significant Wetland in Pickering connected to Lower Duffins Creek.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"The
The Lower Duffins Creek Wetlands in Pickering is under threat of development. Photo by Philip Jessup<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On top of restoring the powers of Conservation Authorities,\u00a0 all major opposition parties also vowed to <\/span>revoke<\/b> without compensation any permits that developers and landowners obtain <\/b>using the new Schedule 6 mechanisms.\u00a0 Such a firm approach is warranted given the reckless and outrageous nature of the changes to the\u00a0 Conservation Authorities Act.\u00a0 Revoking permits that have <\/span>already <\/span><\/i>been granted accomplishes two important things:<\/span><\/p>\n