Innisfil Council commits to ask Simcoe County for careful protection of High Quality Natural Cover lands at Big Bay Point

A map of the problem at Big Bay Point, showing the province’s NHS in green hatching. The red hatching indicates areas recommended for removal from the NHS in Simcoe County’s map.

December 9th, 2021
By Claire Malcolmson, Executive Director, Rescue Lake Simcoe Coalition
Media statement – Rescue Lake Simcoe Coalition

Last night Innisfil Council unanimously supported a motion that should result in better environmental protection for the Big Bay Point area. The motion derived from the Rescue Lake Simcoe Coalition and its members in Innisfil working together with staff and Councilors to make right a problematic element of the Municipal Comprehensive Review process in Simcoe County.

The problem that needed fixing appears to be rooted in Simcoe County’s decision to recommend the removal of all registered plans of subdivision, regardless of age, from a Natural Heritage Systems (NHS) map developed by the province of Ontario starting in 2017. The result was a map (attached) that looked like swiss cheese at Big Bay Point, an area ironically identified by the province as an area of “High Quality Natural Cover” in the Lake Simcoe Protection Plan. The Rescue Lake Simcoe Coalition has long argued that these High Quality Natural Cover areas deserve policy protection which they do not have. The watershed target for High Quality Natural Cover is 40% in the Lake Simcoe Protection Plan, while only 28% High Quality Natural Cover exists across the watershed landscape today.

The effect of Innisfil’s motion is a recognition that these High Quality Natural Cover areas deserve special attention, and that Simcoe County’s blanket approach to refinements to the province’s NHS map is far too blunt a tool for the situation. Should the Rescue Lake Simcoe Coalition not have stepped in and led citizens through a byzantine process to track down the age and status of the many plans of subdivision the County recommended removing from the NHS, it is possible that many areas in the NHS would have not received the environmental protection that the province had initially recommended, simply because there was a plan of subdivision on the properties. The old plans of subdivision, some from the 1920’s, are relics of the past that would not be approved today. Innsifil has committed to look into this and to make appropriate recommendations to the County.

The resolution, moved by Councillor Alex Waters reads:

•  That staff be requested through the Town’s Official Plan Amendment exercise that will follow the County’s MCR process to update the Town’s Official Plan mapping to ensure environmental protection in areas of outdated plans of subdivision which do not conform to A Place to Grow, 2020;

• That staff report back to Council in advance of the completion of the MCR process on deeming subdivisions not to be registered plans of subdivision which do not conform to A Place To Grow, 2020;

• That staff submit to the County a list of sites, and a request that non-conforming, old registered plans of subdivision remain in the Growth Plan NHS and be removed from Simcoe County’s mapping; and

• That Simcoe County be requested to ensure that areas of High Quality Natural Cover in the Lake Simcoe watershed be protected by only removing from the Growth Plan Natural Heritage System approved plans of subdivision that were in settlement area boundaries as of July 1, 2017, as per the A Place to Grow policy 4.2.2. s1. and by retaining in the NHS small patches of natural cover regardless of size;

The Rescue Lake Simcoe Coalition argues that there would not have been such cause for concern if Simcoe County had strictly followed the province’s guidance on the implementation of the NHS. Instead of paid staff and consultants working this out, it has been the concerned citizens and grannies of Innisfil and Oro-Medonte who have poured over maps and worried the details of each tiny parcel proposed to be removed. While Executive Director Claire Malcolmson insists this is a hugely inappropriate downloading of responsibility to ENGOs and citizens, she is hopeful that the same outcome can be achieved in Oro Medonte, and that Simcoe County too will approach the areas of high quality natural cover with the same carefulness as Innisfil committed to last night.

The Coalition’s broader aim of achieving better policy protection for Lake Simcoe’s High Quality Natural Cover will be articulated once again to Ontario’s Minister of the Environment, now using Innisfil’s motion as an illustration of how and why the province should support special treatment of areas of Lake Simcoe’s High Quality Natural Cover in the Municipal Comprehensive Review.

A map of the problem at Big Bay Point is attached. It shows the province’s NHS in green hatching. The red hatching indicates areas recommended  for removal from the NHS in Simcoe County’s map.

Simcoe County Council is having a Question and Answer session today about the Municipal Comprehensive Review process. December 9th, 1:00 pm. It can be viewed here Special Council Meeting – Municipal Comprehensive Review (MCR) – 1pm start

For more information see https://rescuelakesimcoe.org/current-activities/official-plans/