This past April the Ministries of Environment and Climate Change (MOECC) and Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF) released ‘Watershed Planning in Ontario: Guidance for Land Use Planning Authorities’ on the Environmental Registry.
The provincial land use policies state that green infrastructure should be considered when planning more resilient complete communities. Watershed planning is one effective mechanism for this to occur. GIO had the opportunity to review the guidance and we are pleased to report it does include green infrastructure in multiple sections. Through our review process we compiled a submission that includes a number of recommendations to help improve the draft content.
Our submission included the following recommendations:
- Improve the level of technical direction provided for the green infrastructure components.
- Discuss the full scope of Natural Heritage System planning at different scales and ensure terrestrial and aquatic system planning be clearly required to be in the scope of watershed planning
- Provide directions on how to characterize and assess potential impacts of climate change, but also how to incorporate opportunities associated with climate change adaptation measures.
- Indicate that municipalities should consider the costs and benefits of green infrastructure and low impact development versus traditional grey infrastructure for stormwater management.
Read more details in GIO’s full submission here