[All] ECO report and Hidden Valley

[Lanteigne]

Hi folks
Diane Saxe, the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario has just released their annual report yesterday. 
In a nutshell: 
It speaks of sewage overflows in Ontario. Of 1,327 events, 766 of them originated from 57 outdated systems that combine sewage with storm runoff resulting in discharge of raw sewage into Ontario waterways. 
It speaks of the shortfalls of the Source Water protection and how it fails to have regard for sewage runoff, agriculture activities and farm runoff, industrial runoff, road salts. The laws for industrial toxins is 25 years old and in need of update. We lack policy to address many of these risks. Right now the funding for the existing Source Water protection program is uncertain with this current government. 
It speaks of the decline of Wetlands in Ontario. We've already lost 72% of them up to 2002 and we lost an additional 0.6% from 2000-2010 and current laws are failing to protect because the government has not assessed many of them. At this rate it would take 260 years to assess wetlands for Provincially Significant Wetland status in Southern Ontario alone yet we know of all wetlands assessed on average 61% are declared PSW's. The Environmental Commissioner stated all wetlands in Ontario should have PSW status until proven otherwise. It is highly complex to replace the function of a wetland. You can't just replace small wetlands with a larger wetland complex. Offsetting should be viewed as a small component of a much broader plan to protect remaining wetlands not the solution to halt the net loss of wetlands. 
The Environmental Commissioner created mapping of forest covers in watershed in Southern Ontario and the totality of the Grand River Watershed was EXCLUDED because there is no data available.
So in light of the Environmental Commissioner's report I would say strongly that no function for land use of any kind should be determined for Hidden Valley due to the absence of Provincial data.
To view the Environmental Commissioner's latest report is broken up to several online booklets. You can view them by visiting here: 2018 Back to Basics | Environmental Commissioner of Ontario
The forestry mapping that lacks data on the Grand River Watershed's tree coverage is on page 52 Back to Basics Southern Ontario's Wetlands and Forests. (the light green book among the reports issued.) 

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2018 Back to Basics | Environmental Commissioner of Ontario

Environmental Commissioner of Ontario

The Environmental Commissioner of Ontario (ECO) is an independent officer of the Legislature who reports on gove...
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I will be attending the Hidden Valley meeting this evening at the Kitchener Operations Facility. If folks want to attend it will be at 131 Goodrich Dr., 6:30-8:30 with presentation at 7pm. Enter from the side. 
Louisette Lanteigne

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