Ecosystem offsetting has been adopted as a natural heritage planning tool by many land use planning authorities across southern Ontario. While the intent of offsetting is typically to compensate for the negative impacts of development, in practice, it is seldom successful at fully compensating for the losses incurred. Despite the risks, it is likely to become even more prevalent in Ontario, given the provincial government’s proposal to develop a provincial natural heritage offsetting policy in response to the housing crisis. To help inform planning and policy development regarding offsetting at the municipal level, Ontario Nature released a new report, Wetland Offsetting Policies for Local Planning Authorities: A Review of Best Practices in Ontario. The report sets out a 10-point framework for creating effective offsetting policies, with best practice examples of policies from Ontario municipalities and conservation authorities. Join Ontario Nature staff and municipal colleagues on June 27th to discuss the report and issues arising from offsetting.
Anne Bell, Director of Conservation and Education, Ontario Nature
Resources:
Below is a summary of questions/action items that came from the meeting:
- Explore how the municipality can analyze and report on the likelihood and cost of wetlands being lost to development, either because they have not been evaluated or because they may lose their protection as provincially significant;
- Report on how the municipality tracks (or can track) permeable and impermeable surfaces across the community over time;
- How are/can municipal policies and zoning bylaws provide sufficient protection for wetlands, especially in light of recent provincial policy changes;
- Ensure that stormwater plans are being updated using future climate projections as well as historical data;
- How well does the asset management plan incorporate stormwater infrastructure, and whether the municipality is fully recovering costs associated with stormwater management;
- Identify if wetlands and other ‘green’ infrastructure have been incorporated sufficiently into asset management plans;
- Analyze and report on stormwater fees and whether they should be used in your municipality; and
- Undertake a costs and benefits review of maintaining ‘green’ stormwater infrastructure and landcover permeability in comparison to needing to invest in more ‘grey’ infrastructure to provide the ecosystem services the wetland used to provide; and