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Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority (LSRCA) staff are recommending that the DG Group be allowed to build a 1,073 unit residential development on the Paradise Beach-Island Grove Provincially Significant Wetland (PSW) in the North Gwillimbury Forest. The LSRCA Board will vote on this recommendation on Friday, March 23rd.
The Staff recommendation is unlawful. It is contrary to the Provincial Policy Statement, the Conservation Authorities Act and the LSRCA’s current Watershed Development Guidelines, which all prohibit development (except infrastructure) on provincially significant wetlands.
LSRCA Staff provide a number of misleading and inaccurate justifications for their recommendation to allow the DG Group to destroy the PSW:
- On the basis of an October 18, 2004 letter from the Ministry of Natural Resources to Metrus Developments (now the DG Group), the LSRCA Staff assert “that the Province has no interest in the protection of the wetland.” However, the staff fail to note that the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry rescinded its 2004 letter on March 11, 2015.
- LSRCA staff assert that the LSRCA must approve the destruction of the PSW because the Government of Ontario has refused to allow the DG Group to build a subdivision on prime farmlands in the Greenbelt’s Protected Countryside on the south side of Deer Park Road.
- LSRCA Staff claim that destruction of the PSW is acceptable because the DG Group has agreed to transfer those prime farmlands to the Town or the Region so that our tax dollars can be used to turn good farmlands into fake wetlands. This would allegedly offset the ecological loss caused by allowing the DG Group to destroy the real Paradise Beach-Island Grove PSW.
- The LSRCA Staff assert that the DG Group’s wetland destruction application must be approved to comply with the LSRCA’s unlawful and now defunct Subdivisions-in-Wetlands Policy. This claim makes no sense for three reasons: First, this policy was replaced by the LSRCA’s new Watershed Development Guidelines, which prohibit subdivisions in wetlands, in April 2015; second, the LSRCA’s Undertaking with the developer, which mentioned the defunct policy, expired on Dec. 31, 2016 and was not renewed; third, the DG Group submitted a new application to destroy the Paradise Beach-Island Grove PSW in place of the original application on May 2, 2017.
What you can do
- Please ask your LSRCA Board Member to reject the DG Group’s request to destroy the Paradise Beach-Island Grove PSW. (See names and email addresses below)
- Please ask the LSRCA for permission to make a deputation in support of saving the PSW at their Friday, March 23rd board meeting. (email t.barnett@lsrca.on.ca)
- Please attend the Friday, March 23rd LSRCA board meeting at 9 a.m. to show your support for saving the PSW. The meeting will be held at the LSRCA offices at 120 Bayview Parkway in Newmarket.
- Please pass this message on to your friends.
LSRCA Board members
Click here to email all the board members.
Please pass this message on to your friends.
Thank you,
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