DAVID SUZUKI FOUNDATION, ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENCE, LAND OVER LANDINGS, ONTARIO NATURE, RESCUE LAKE SIMCOE COALITION, SIMCOE COUNTY GREENBELT COALITION, WILDERNESS COMMITTEE<\/p>\n
Now that Ontario has passed Bill 229 and its attack on Conservation Authorities, the job of protecting wetlands, forests, drinking water and quality of life falls to ordinary citizens<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Toronto, Ont. \u2013 Today, the Ontario Government ignored a deafening chorus of expert warnings, to instead reward the worst developers and land speculators by incapacitating the system that protects source water and guards Ontarians against flooding, landslides and other environmental disasters.<\/p>\n Members of the Greenbelt Council, non-partisan regulators, legal analysts, municipalities, NGOs and farmers, together with tens of thousands of Ontarians of all political stripes and walks of life, have warned the government of the dire consequences of \u201cSchedule 6\u201d amendments to the Conservation Authorities Act<\/em>. These changes will let developers dump, build and excavate largely unchecked in high-risk areas, risking impaired water quality, property damage, and environmental degradation, and endangering public safety across the province.<\/p>\n The most damaging of the changes to Conservation Authorities include:<\/p>\n Many Ontario environmental and community organizations will continue to work with the dozens of respected organizations and the more than 50,000 Ontarians who expressed their outrage through letters and phone calls about the damaging changes to Conservation Authorities. Together, we will work to protect natural spaces and stop destructive developments to ensure a better future for all Ontarians.<\/p>\n \u201cThe gutting of Conservation Authorities shows that this Ontario government ignores the people. It\u2019s a government for land speculators and the worst sorts of developers,\u201d said Tim Gray, Executive Director of Environmental Defence. \u201cThis undermining of Conservation Authorities takes the province back over 70 years, to a more dangerous time when we didn\u2019t know better. Now, however, we do <\/em>know better, and we recognize that Ontarians deserve more, including wetlands, forests and flood plains that are intact and not paved over.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cReplacing science-based watershed management with politically motivated backroom decision-making is just not smart planning,\u201d said Katie Krelove, Ontario Campaigner with the Wilderness Committee. \u201cIt puts the province\u2019s last remaining wetlands and the wildlife that depend on them at risk.\u00a0Ontarians have been rediscovering the health benefits of local nature throughout the pandemic, that\u2019s\u00a0why so many people spoke up in support of Conservation Authorities and against Schedule 6.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s shocking how the government has ignored tens of thousands of Ontarians, including prominent figures like David Crombie, who has characterized this whole mess as a \u201chigh-level bombing,\u201d said Caroline Schultz, Executive Director of Ontario Nature. \u201cThere is so much at stake, yet the government has chosen to pander to its developer buddies at everyone else\u2019s expense. Rest assured, we will not forget this affront to the environment and democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOntario has been going down the path of un-economic development whereby the failure to value our intact natural ecosystems has led to policies that consistently degrade our most precious assets,\u201d said Yannick Beaudoin, Senior Economist and Director General for Ontario and Northern Canada with the David Suzuki Foundation. \u201cApplying old economic thinking that has resulted in a global climate and biodiversity crisis and is inflating intergenerational fiscal liabilities, is not a sound pathway forward.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf Ontario were genuine about reducing red tape and streamlining planning processes, they would not have done this. They would have had conversations about policy reform with professionals including Conservation Authorities. The fact that they have done the opposite – a sneak attack on the agency that protects Ontarians from flooding – leads me to believe that what they really think is: \u201cPeople without flooding insurance, environment, and other suckers – you\u2019re on your own! Developers and land speculators, come to our Christmas party,\u201d said Rescue Lake Simcoe Coalition Executive Director, Claire Malcolmson.<\/p>\n \u201cLike all watersheds in Ontario, the fate of the pristine waters of the Duffins that flows through the Pickering Federal Lands to Lake Ontario must not be left to the insatiable demands of the development\u00a0industry. MZOs threaten class one farmland and provincially significant wetlands in Pickering and underline the urgent need for\u00a0independent\u00a0arms’ length organizations such as our Conservation Authorities and the Greenbelt Council. We are uniquely positioned to understand\u00a0the critical imperative of all governmental jurisdictions\u00a0working collaboratively if we are to weather the coming storms \u2013 literally and figuratively,\u201d said\u00a0Mary Delaney, Chair, Land Over Landings.<\/p>\n -30-<\/p>\n For more information and to arrange an interview please contact:<\/p>\n Allen Braude, Environmental Defence<\/a>, abraude@environmentaldefence.ca<\/a><\/p>\n Yannick Beaudoin, David Suzuki Foundation<\/a>, ybeaudoin@davidsuzuki.org<\/a><\/p>\n Mary Delaney, Land Over Landings<\/a>, landoverlanding@gmail.com<\/a>,<\/p>\n John Hassell, Ontario Nature<\/a>, johnh@ontarionature.org<\/a><\/p>\n Claire Malcolmson, Rescue Lake Simcoe Coalition<\/a>, claire.malcomson@gmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n Margaret Prophet,\u00a0 Simcoe County Greenbelt Coalition<\/a>, margaret@simcoecountrygreenbetl.ca<\/a><\/p>\n Katie Krelove, Wilderness Committee<\/a>, katie@wildernesscommittee.org<\/a><\/p>\n The post The Ontario Government Betrays the People of Ontario in Favour of Bad Developers with the Passage of Schedule 6<\/a> appeared first on Environmental Defence<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n This post was originally published on Environmental Defence<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" DAVID SUZUKI FOUNDATION, ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENCE, LAND OVER LANDINGS, ONTARIO NATURE, RESCUE LAKE SIMCOE COALITION, SIMCOE COUNTY GREENBELT COALITION, WILDERNESS COMMITTEE Now that Ontario has…Read More<\/a><\/p>\n The post The Ontario Government Betrays the People of Ontario in Favour of Bad Developers with the Passage of Schedule 6<\/a> appeared first on Environmental Defence<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":717,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2158,529],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8048"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/717"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8048"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8048\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8049,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8048\/revisions\/8049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n