I recently wrote about a plan to bulldoze the Duffins Creek wetlands to make way for an Amazon distribution centre. Facilitated by an MZO (Ministerial Zoning Order), a heavy-handed tool designed to shortcut environmental assessment and speed development ("It's all about jobs," says Doug Ford); ("It's all about promoting the profits of your developer friends," say opponents), the plan has now been suspended. Given the public outcry over destroying environmentally-vital land, Amazon has decided to build elsewhere.
One would be foolish to think that the crisis has ended. Only ongoing public awareness and engagement will help ensure the Ford government is much less profligate in its future use of MZO's. To that end, this letter from a Toronto Star reader offers some salient points to ponder:
Bulldozing Duffins Creek Wetland a crime against nature, humanity
Thu., March 18, 2021timer1 min. read
To bulldoze the Duffins Creek Wetland and try to create another wetland is the epitome of insanity. Every existing wetland is home to a plethora of living beings: frogs; crayfish; turtles; fish; dragonfly, mayfly and giant water bug nymphs; snakes; birds; water striders; cat tails; water lilies; water hyacinths, and many other plants and animals.
Each wetland has developed and evolved over dozens, if not hundreds, of years, and may be fed and drained by creeks and streams. Bulldozing Duffins Creek would mean death to all of its inhabitants. Trying to create another wetland elsewhere would be like trying to play Mother Nature.
Wetlands help protect us from water pollution by cleaning the water we drink, helping prevent flooding, and protecting us from drought and climate change, by reducing greenhouse gasses.
If this preposterous project goes ahead, it will be another blight on Doug Ford’s legacy and a crime against nature and humanity, as the citizens and living creatures of Ontario will be deprived of yet another wetland.
Please save the Duffins Creek Wetland.
Mara Glebovs, Etobicoke
