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Politicians are using conflicting pieces of legislation to whittle away an important Ottawa wetland in the city’s west end, Ontario’s Environmental Commissioner says.
Gord Miller highlighted the tricky predicament of the Goulbourn Wetlands in Stittsville, which, despite being designated a “provincially significant” habitat under environmental laws, is being drained under legislation designed to help farmers.
The drainage could soon render the wetland dry, making it suitable for housing development.
Miller slammed both the city and province for failing to sufficiently protect the wetland.
“It certainly looks like this is a ploy to play off these two policies to achieve an end neither one of those policies would satisfy,” Miller said. “Neither is intended to create land suitable for housing development, and that seems to be the intent here because the pressure on the land is not to make it into farms, the pressure on the land is to build on it.”
The city is proposing a special policy for certain wetlands like the one in Stittsville that will allow it to remove the “provincially significant” status if a party requests to change the designation.
“It’s a very serious clash between two conflicting pieces of legislation,” Miller said.
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