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We are at the tail end of this election period and I haven’t heard much about saving wetlands. Perhaps not on voters’ top 10 list of concerns and I understand why.
Affordability, housing, crazy tunnel schemes are all top of mind because they matter to our quality of life. But so do wetlands. Wetlands support biodiversity and provide billions of dollars of services like flood prevention, water filtration and carbon sequestration.
In Bill 23, the More Homes Built Faster Act, Doug Ford changed the definition of provincially significant wetlands so he could more easily build homes over top of them. Urban planners tell us that there is no need to build over wetlands. There is plenty of space for all the homes we need within our urban boundaries. Those homes are more affordable, too, because the infrastructure for them is already there.
But Doug Ford is single-minded in his determination to build unaffordable homes in the wrong places and will do anything he can in helping developers reach their goal of building them.
How short-sighted. We need to build smart now for the future — for our children and grandchildren. So, let’s give Doug Ford a provincially significant result on Feb. 27 when we go to the polls and vote him out.
Victoria Creese
Stouffville
