Tell the NPCA To Take Its ‘Biodiversity Offsetting’ Plan And SHRED IT!
From Doug Draper, Environment Writer, Publisher, Niagara At Large
Posted February 15th, 2016
Tell Carmen D’Angelo and hisNPCA board, and the province to forget about playing ‘biodiversity off-setting’ games with our region’s vital wetland areas.
“I’d like to know how to stop this,” said former City of Thorold mayor and Niagara regional councillor Robin Brock during a public information meeting the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority held late this past January to address its plan to ask the Ontario government for permission to test something called “biodiversity offsetting” on some of what’s left of our natural wetlands here.
“I’d like to save you the time and the effort before you go on,” said Brock, warning that from her many years of experience in local and regional government, it it will likely cost a good deal of time and money (make that money collected from the rest of us in taxes) for all of the work by hired consultants and staff to obtain whatever provincial approvals, redesignating or rezonings of lands, etc. to get anything like whatever this ‘biodiversity offsetting’ is off the ground.
That doesn’t even count the groundswell of grassroots opposition which, from what I am gathering through all the traffic on social media, is growing every day.
And one of the items on social media that is receiving a huge number of hits is a short video produced by Niagara native Owen Bjorgan who is studying biodiversity at Guelph University,which I am going to post again for you to view right here, before leaving you with a list of NPCA board members and provincial represenatives to phone or email and follow up on Robin Brock’s call to stop this destructive idea in its tracks – right now!
http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KNCDaY8E1Q
The following is a list of those who sit on the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority’s Board of Directors, along with their email addresses so you can, if youwish, send them your views on this issue.
The list begins with the NPCA’s chief administrative officer, who’s inbox should be choked every day with complaints from us about where he and the current board is taking this body that should be a voice for protecting and preserving what is left of our natural spaces.
Carmen D’Angelo, Chief Administrative Officer, Phone 905-788-3135 x.251,Email cdangelo@npca.ca
Councillor Bruce Timms, Chair, City of St. Catharines bruce.timms@niagararegion.ca brucetimms@yahoo.com
Councillor Sandy Annunziata, Vice-Chair, Town of Fort Eriesandy.annunziata@niagararegion.ca
Councillor Brian Baty, Member, Town of Pelham brian.baty@niagararegion.ca
Stewart Beattie, Member, City of Hamilton jsbeattie@npca.ca
Dominic DiFruscio, Member, City of Thorold, ddifruscio@npca.ca
Mayor Jim Diodati, Member, City of Niagara Falls, 905-356-7521 ext. 4201 jim.diodati@niagararegion.ca
Councillor Bill Hodgson, Member, Town of Lincoln bill.hodgson@niagararegion.ca
Mayor April Jeffs, Member, Township of Wainfleet april.jeffs@niagararegion.ca ajeffs@wainfleet.ca
James Kaspersetz, Member, City of Hamilton jkaspersetz@npca.ca
Mayor Douglas Joyner, Member, Township of West Lincoln douglas.joyner@niagararegion.ca
Mayor John Maloney, Member, City of Port Colborne, 905-835-2900 ext. 301john.maloney@niagararegion.ca
Councillor Tony Quirk, Member. Town of Grimsby tony.quirk@niagararegion.ca
Councillor Rob Shirton, Member, Haldimand County rshirton@haldimandcounty.on.ca
Following is the names and contact information for the Niagara, Ontario area’s four provincial members of parliaments (MPP). They should be engaged in this issue because the NPCA was created by and is subject to the provisions of Ontario’s Conservation Authorities Act.
St. Catharines Riding – Liberal MPP Jim Bradley, 2 Secord Drive, Unit 2 St. Catharines L2N 1K8 Email: jbradley.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org Phone: 905-935-0018
Welland Riding – NDP MPP Cindy Forster, 60 King Street, Canal View Welland, Ontario L3B 6A4, 905-732-6884, cforster-co@ndp.on.ca
Niagara Falls Riding, NDP MPP Wayne Gates, 6746 Morrison Street Niagara Falls, Ontario L2E 6Z8, 905-357-0681,
Niagara West-Glanbrook Riding, Progressive Conservative MPP Tim Hudak, 4961 King Street East Beamsville, Ontario L0R 1B0, 1-800-665-3697, tim.hudakco@pc.ola.org
You should also consider expressing your concerns to the Ontario Cabinet Minister whose portfolio links with the activities of the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority and other Conservation Authorities across the province. Contact Bill Mauro, Ontario Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry, by clicking on the following –
Suite 6630, 6th Floor, Whitney Block
99 Wellesley Street West
Toronto, Ontario M7A 1W3
NOW IT IS YOUR TURN. Niagara At Large encourages you to share your views on this post. A reminder that we only post comments by individuals who share their first and last name with them.
Niagara At Large 
Do not argue that wetlands can or can’t be created. If the “new” Authority can get top environmentalists to agree the wetlands created by engineers like those created by the construction of Rail lines and QEW aren’t in fact real or quality wetlands they may use this opinion to try and decertify what we already have. The truth is that many of these wetlands have become valuable replacements over time but not due to quality but rather the absents and loss of much of Niagara’s natural wetlands, and they must be respected and protected. Geology plays a big role and its not just a simple drainage restructuring issue.
Looking at the environmental resumes of the board its not too hard to see there was a “If you can’t beat them join them” maneuver by the pro-development community. During the election I asked Bart Maves what he was doing on the NPCA board. He isn’t well known for his expansive environmental record! He explained to me that the NPCA had gone too far in the protection direction and wasn’t willing to give and take at all- something we must do for economy sake. I agreed to a point. He said they had to move it a little closer to center. Well goal accomplished, Mr Maves, and then some.
The NPCA is now the laughing stock of the environmental community. These are the people that in the past have taught us and our children the importance of wetlands and natural areas. Now they want to wipe the canvass clean and arrange things to where they feel its “convenient”.
If they want to try to create new wetlands (Something we expect a CA to do) and protect the little bit of natural area we have left I will support them but moving a wetland isn’t something we expect a conservation authority to consider. They have historically fought to save disappearing species and now suggest they can successfully reproduce necessary habitat and relocate these life forms. If this is actually the case then the current board should accept the fact that they’ve placed an ugly scar on this agency that they can never live down and it’s time for them to step down and allow environmentally capable professionals to return and do the job a CA should be doing. Protecting our ground water and natural areas while working with the development community to reduce impact as we grow.
Clearly purging and replacing the board is not working. If they can’t get it right in the office, how can they stand a chance in the field?
LikeLike
Apart from being yet another development industry devised bait-and-switch game, the proposal doesn’t even believe in itself.
For, if it believed itself, the plan would sensibly undertake first to build the substitue wetlands and give them the lengthy time required to prove their viability and effectiness while forestalling any development work on the targeted regions. Only when supportive, objectively and scientifically predetermined, measurable data thresholds were met or exceeded re the new resources could there be any carefully staged and potentially reversible development of the existing areas, a slow and methodical process that would necessarily require many, many years and be subject to control systems that cannot be gamed.
But such an approach would run counter to the industry’s predominant get-richer-quicker ethos, something it remains prepared to use its ever-increasing political influence to achieve (e.g., having strategically attractive boards and authorities refashioned in friendlier guise). So don’t expect it to be so much as hinted at.
LikeLike
There are situations where the exchange of a wetland for the creation of another wetland 3 times the size of the one given up would be acceptable to even the most sensitive environmentalist.
One would be where the seasonal wetland has already been lost to the Region to develop a new WWTP (Wastewater Treatment Plant).
The decommissioned WWTP complete with settling ponds would then be converted to natural wetlands as part of the new WWTP project, funding provided by the region, of course.
This situation is feasible in Niagara on the Lake and would have the additional benefit of 30 hectares of natural wetland replacing 5 hectares of seasonal wetland. What are your thoughts on this?
LikeLike