[All] Hanlon Creek, Guelph and COURT FILE NO.: 636/09

[Louisette Lanteigne]

Dear Ministers
 
Please consider this email as a letter of support for the correspondence sent previously by Mr. Neil Taylor on September 10, 2009.
 
In my view Mr. Taylor's letter adequately reflects the growing concerns regarding the lack of compliance by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources towards it's own Statement of Environmental Values. We have numerous Federal and Provincial laws regarding the need to protect and preserve the habitats of threatened and endangered species including the 
Endangered Species Act, 2007 S.O. 2007, CHAPTER 6 yet dispite of the progress made in policy, there is little effort made towards actual enforcement. 
 
For many years I have tried multiple times to engage the Guelph MNR and Minister Cansfield in the planning processes for the West Side Lands and the Owen property in the City of Waterloo in order to protect several threatened and endangered species located in Environmentally Sensitive Protected Area 19 (ESPA 19). This area is the largest forest in the City of Waterloo and multiple municipal reports verify the presence of Jefferson Salamanders, the Hooded Warbler and the Acadian Flycatchers and Red Headed Woodpecker in and adjacent to this old growth area.  I created a web page to illustrate the documented evidence of these animals in this area and included with it the draft plan of subdivision reports showing that the municipality and Grand River Conservation Authority knew these proposals would degrade the habitats yet they approved them anyways.  The web page can be seen on line here at:
 
http://www.waterloomoraineact.com/birdsespa19.htm
 
 
The MNR failed to get involved prior to approval of either the West Side Lands or Owen property and as a result, my family spent over $28,000 in two separate OMB processes in order to seek compliance to the laws which the MNR are responsible for enforcing. We won concessions for the West Side Lands OMB case PL071044 but the OMB wouldn't allow us party status for the Owen property hearing because in their view, we didn't have "willing" witnesses to work with.  If the MNR had agreed to assist us we could have secured party status in order to protect these species but they declined to help in spite of multiple attempts to engage them into the process. They were privy to all the documents as seen on the website. I sent it to them.
 
In my view, the lack of regard shown by the MNR towards the protection and preservation of rare species is unacceptable and unreasonable. Their negligence to enforce the law has has caused fiscal damages to my family. I had to take extreme measures and take on two OMB processes in order to seek compliance to provincial and federal laws because they failed to do their job. This is not acceptable. 
 
In regards to the Hanlon Business Park, it does not surprise me that the MNR has not agreed to a stop action in spite of the confirmed Jeffersons in the area or the large public outcry. In my view their response is very consistent with what I've encountered in regards to the situations in Waterloo. 
 
I believe it is time to audit the MNR for their performance in regards to the protection and preservation of rare species and their habitats. The lack of enforcement is in my view, the greatest risk these animals face today. 
 
Thank you kindly for your time.
 
Louisette Lanteigne
700 Star Flower Ave.
Waterloo Ontario
N2V 2L2
 
--- On Thu, 9/10/09, Neil E. Taylor <neiletaylor at sympatico.ca> wrote:








September 10th, 2009
 
(Via email)
 
Attention:
 
Hon. Donna Cansfield MPP
Minister of Natural Resources 
6630- 99 Wellesley St W , 6th Flr., Whitney Block
Toronto ON M7A 1W3 
 
Re.      COURT FILE NO.: 636/09
Ontario Superior Court Of Justice 
JUDGMENT of J. GRAY
August 13, 2009
 
Dear Minister:
Please see the attached documents.  I look forward to acknowledgement and a response at your earliest convenience.
 
Respectfully submitted,
 
Neil E. Taylor
 
 
“If I keep a green bough in my heart, the singing bird will come." - Chinese Proverb
 
"You must have the bird in your heart before you can find it in the bush"  - John Burroughs (1908) essay: Art of Seeing Things
 
neiletaylor at sympatico.ca
http://www.sentex.net/~tntcomm/kwfn/index.html  ---KWFN Web Page
 
Neil E. Taylor
1016 Wilson Ave.
Kitchener ON 
N2C 1J2
Tel. 519-893-6469
 
 
Summer Address: 
1031 Hewitt St.
Gull Lake
Gravenhurst ON
Tel. (705) 687-1234
 
"In the end, we conserve only what we love, we will love only what we understand and we will understand only what we are taught."  -- Baba Dioum
 
“I have a room all to myself; it is Nature.  It is a place beyond the jurisdiction of human government.” -  (Author unknown)
 
“Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
 
“The richness I achieve comes from nature, the source of my inspiration.” - Claude Monet
 
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