Ontario Construction News staff writer
Environmental groups have applied for a motion to stay to prevent developers from destroying Provincially Significant Wetlands at Lower Duffins Creek in Pickering.
Ecojustice, on behalf of Environmental Defence and Ontario Nature, filed the motion with the Ontario Divisional Court following an application from a developer to the Toronto Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) for a permit to begin construction on the wetlands.
On March 4, the Ontario government issued a regulation requiring the TRCA to issue a development permit to Pickering Developments by March 12. Opponents say the permit “will give the developers permission to destroy a protected, rare coastal Great Lakes wetland.”
TRCA’s Board of Directors is holding a hearing on Friday March 12, 2021 at 10 a.m., to meet the legally mandated Provincial deadline.
The public hearing to address conditions to the permission will be streamed live on TRCA’s website.
“This case is crucial to ensuring limits to MZOs across Ontario. If the government is allowed to ignore protections for important coastal wetlands at Duffins Creek this threatens the environment and good planning across Ontario,” said ecojustice lawyer Laura Bowman.
“The Ontario government has ignored its own planning laws by approving this development. The legality of the zoning authorization should be tested before the wetland is destroyed forever. This is why our clients have applied for an urgent motion to stay the work on the site.”
Last year, the Ontario Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs issued a Minister’s Zoning Order (MZO) to allow the construction of a warehouse and distribution facility on the wetlands. Environmental Defence and Ontario Nature, represented by Ecojustice, filed a judicial review against the Ontario government for this unlawful use of an MZO.
The Supporting Broadband and Infrastructure Expansion Act (Bill 257).
On March 5, environmental groups filed an urgent motion to prevent the TRCA from allowing the developer to destroy this Provincially Significant Wetland.
Even as the Ontario government appears determined to ram through development on Duffin’s Creek, the project faces strong opposition from local communities, who value its ecological and cultural benefits, and from the TRCA’s Board of Directors.
“It is a sad day when we have to go to court to force our own government to obey Ontario law. It is even more shocking when the government seeks to gut those same laws to avoid being held accountable in court,” said Tim Gray, executive director, Environmental Defence.
“Lower Duffins Creek wetland is rare, precious and valued. Its destruction would be a disaster on its own but its loss would also signal that all wetlands, forests, and river valleys are beyond the protection of the law and at risk from rapacious developers.”