City council is backing the Hamilton Conservation Authority’s call for a watchdog probe into provincial changes to wetland evaluation that critics say will put the ecological areas in more peril.
The Tory government’s changes come amid a raft of controversy, including a 7,400-acre Greenbelt carve-out Premier Doug Ford last week vowed to reverse after two scathing reports.
The Hamilton Conservation Authority (HCA) is “scratching its head trying to understand what provoked such dramatic and radical changes to Conservation Authorities Act and the regulations,” Coun. Brad Clark said Wednesday.
The only way to “get answers to this is through the auditor general,” added Clark, who’s HCA chair.
Earlier this month, the HCA board also called for the Ford government to walk back the changes it made through the More Homes Built Faster Act.
Changes to the Conservation Authorities Act have compromised the “effectiveness” of watershed stewards’ ability to protect natural heritage, the board’s motion says.
Moreover, changes to Ontario’s provincially significant wetland evaluation system will strip protection from an estimated more than 80 per cent of wetlands that have that status.
Meanwhile, recent reports by the auditor general and integrity commissioner have “raised serious concerns on the bias and lack of transparency in the Greenbelt removals.”
Indeed, the Ford government has been “uniquely awful when it comes to paving over wetlands,” but their destruction has been a problem for years, Coun. Alex Wilson said.
“Of course, we need the auditor general to investigate this, but we need to be really clear things are not just getting worse; they’ve gone from bad to worse.”
The Ministry of Municipal Affairs said it wasn’t able to respond to The Spectator’s request for comment by deadline.
The city has clashed with various changes the province has made to land-use planning policy in recent years, including the Greenbelt removals, which amount to 2,000 acres locally, and an imposed 5,400-acre urban expansion.
On Wednesday, councillors raised more flags over new Housing Minister Paul Calandra’s request for feedback on a provincial housing task force’s recommendations to shore up Ontario’s housing stock in line with a goal to create 1.5 million homes by 2031.
In a letter, Calandra, who took over the file after Steve Clark resigned amid the Greenbelt fallout, asks for Mayor Andrea Horwath’s “position” on the 74 recommendations the task force made in February.
City staff have already provided their take on the recommendations, but with 23 implemented, Calandra wrote, he has asked his ministry to “renew its efforts” to realize the rest “with minimal delay.”
If the city doesn’t return the chart indicating its support or not for each of the recommendations by Oct. 16, Hamilton won’t be eligible for a slice of the new $1.2-billion Building Faster Fund, he warns.
It’s “improper” to put the city in such a position, Clark said, but staff can meet the October deadline with a response that provides additional commentary, noted Jason Thorne, general manager of planning and economic development.
Mayor Andrea Horwath called the minister’s request a “performative” ticking of boxes for recommendations that require more serious responses.
Horwath said she’s been “disappointed” in the past over provincial initiatives, such as a 47,000-unit “housing pledge” that was later revealed to be tied to funding. “Too often, when we participate in some of these initiatives, we don’t know what is around the corner.”
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