Ford's housing bill limits protection of watersheds, greenspaces, conservation authorities warn

Ontario's conservation authorities are raising concerns about the potential risks of rolling back their involvement in how and where homes are built across the province.

Conservation Ontario, which represents the 36 conservation authorities, says Premier Doug Ford's new bill to speed up housing development could have "unintended consequences" and is hopeful the government is open to changing it. 

Similar concerns are being expressed in Ottawa, which you can read about here.

Angela Coleman, who is general manager of the group, said conservation authorities act as an important check and balance in the development process. They protect watersheds and green spaces and the proposed changes would give them much less say over where housing developments can proceed.

The oversight powers currently given to the groups stem from work done after Hurricane Hazel killed 81 Ontario residents in 1954, she said.

"This is something that if we don't think about the past, are we doomed to repeat it," Coleman said.

"And I think we've come to take for granted that we've had good development safeguards. Certainly, different pieces of that are at risk in these proposals as tabled currently."

LISTEN | CBC Radio's Metro Morning spoke with two planning and housing experts about their view:

On Tuesday, Ford announced a sweeping new plan to get housing built across Ontario. He has set ambitious targets for municipalities to ensure that the province achieves its overall goal of building 1.5 million new homes in a decade.

The bill changes the powers conservation authorities have to limit development. The government has said the bill will mean the groups will no longer need to consider factors like pollution or land conservation when approving building permits. 

"It's a system we had in place with checks and balances that matter for homeowners," Coleman said.

"There are floods in Ontario, but the amount of flooding and the damages from that flooding have certainly been significantly reduced because of the work of conservation authorities in the province of Ontario."

Ontario's natural resources minister said the goal of the legislation is not to take powers away from conservation authorities, but to "streamline" their mandates. The province's conservation authorities all operate differently, Graydon Smith said.

"One of the challenges for the development community is it's very confusing," Smith added.

"So we want to streamline again and focus and make sure that there's a consistent set of policies and focus for conservation authorities to focus on."

Smith denied the bill will weaken conservation authorities.

"So, conservation authorities are going to continue to play the role they were born to play, which is to protect people and property from flooding zones that we know have natural hazards in them," he said.

'A backward step'

Paula Fletcher, a city councillor who also sits on the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, said the bill will toss much of the important work the groups do to protect the environment.

"I think that when you take out the authority of the conservation authority, to make sure that the developers aren't risking flood plains, or building on flood plains or building on sensitive wetlands, that will have an incredible impact downstream," she said.

"That's a backward step."

Toronto city councillor-elect Dianne Saxe said the bill will undermine environmental protections.

"It's disastrously bad on the environmental side, like almost everything else we've seen from the Ford government," she said.

"It just demolishes a wide swath of environmental protections that we desperately need. It's a frontal attack on conservation authorities, conservation lands and wetlands which are critical for protecting us from flooding."

Saxe, who is Ontario's former environmental commissioner, said Ontario is also ignoring Toronto's climate change targets and its environmental standards for new buildings.

"It eliminates the authority for site plan control and exterior design of buildings which will probably destroy the Toronto green standards," she said.

"It makes it easier for developers to make a lot more money and it's going to make the city a lot worse for everybody else."