Conservation
Letter on Protection of Ontario's Wetlands
The Wilderness Canoe Association was one of 87 organizations included as signatories to an open letter recently sent to three Ontario government ministers --Environment, Natural Resources, and Municipal Affairs and Housing-- on the topic of Restoring Provincial Wetland Protections in Ontario. A pdf of the letter is attached to this post.
The letter documents recent changes to provincial legislation and regulations that have weakened the protection of Ontario's wetlands, which are a critical resource for the preservation of biodiversity and for the mitigation of climate change impacts. Wetland areas are often of great cultural significance to indigenous peoples. In addition, wetlands across the province represent one of the most accessible opportunities for people to experience nature first-hand, both in urban and more remote areas, from the seat of a canoe.
The letter documents many different sources of stress on wetlands and provides a useful overview of ways in which the provincial government must reconcile environmental protection with other policy objectives. The joint letter was orchestrated by Ontario Nature. Many of the numerous signatories to the letter are focused on particular regional conservation activities that may be of interest to individual WCA members, providing local opportunities for engagement on these issues.
Additional information can be found at the Ontario Nature Wetlands web page:
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concervation committee information posts
The Conservation committee will be dropping a routine cadence of monthly posts on areas of concern or awareness for WCA members. Our goal is to share equally awareness of conservation risks to rivers and paddling regions as well as the good news in conservation from NGO such as CPAWS/Wildlands league (CDN Parks and wilderness), others such as (FOD) friends of Dumoine and (FOW) friends of Wabakimi and others. Stay tuned for these conservation forum snippets.
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Norhern Ontario Hydro Electric Generating Capacity
WCA Conservation Committee:
Ontario's Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) has just released an update relating to its electricity demand forecasting for Ontario. The latest update anticipates that electricity demand will increase by 75% between 2025 and 2050. Under last year's forecast, demand was expected to increase by 60% over the same period. These figures are part of the IESO's Annual Planning Outlook process, with the 2026 Outlook scheduled for release in Q1 2025. The projected 75% increase translates into average compound annual growth of 2.2%; however, growth in the current forecast is anticipated to be front-loaded due to the expected addition of loads relating to data centres and industrial demand. The outlook has implications for future electric power and energy sources, including the question of development of incremental hydro-electric generating capacity.
https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/electricity-demand-in-ontario-to-…
In addition last year, Ontario Power Generation (OPG) issued a report (see attached document) identifying between 3,000 and 4,000 MW of additional hydro-electric capacity in northern Ontario. OPG currently operates over 7,600 MW of hydro-electric capacity, representing around 44% of it’s generating capacity. Several rivers in the ring of fire region are potentially implicated.
It’s worthwhile paying close attention to specific activities relating to new hydro development in northern Ontario. Most pressing risk area is the Little Jack fish River location.
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