WC130 MayJune2023 - Magazine - Page 27
that federal jurisdiction and statutory authority are recognized
and applied to address those instances whenever they occur.”
While legal precedents will undoubtedly remain largely
domestic, Castrilli says a high-profile U.S. Supreme Court
decision could very well influence political policy developments
in Canada. “If the Americans are retrenching on the ability to
issue Section 404 permits to protect wetlands under the Clean
Water Act of the United States, that sends a message north
of the border,” Castrilli says. “Not a message with binding
effect, but a policy preference that, particularly provincial
governments, eager to facilitate development in marginal land
areas, will take note of.”
With court cases ongoing and decisions pending on both sides
of the border, land use and conservation struggles carry on. The
Ontario government’s plan to build Highway 413, an expressway
that would cut through a swath of greenbelt north of Toronto,
remains on pause while the project awaits a federal environmental impact assessment. The delay prompted Ontario Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney to tell reporters in March that,
“If we didn’t have to do this work with the federal government,
we’d have been able to get shovels in the ground much sooner.”
Watchful vigilance
As a binational environmental organization with staff throughout
the Great Lakes region, Freshwater Future has its collective eyes
on court decisions and government actions in both the United
States and Canada as they affect small, disconnected bogs, marshes, and other wetlands all too frequently deemed peripheral.
“They’re the kidneys of our water systems,” says executive director Jill Ryan. “They reduce flooding, filter out contaminants, and
provide habitat for frogs, fishes, reptiles, and birds. It might seem
simple—somebody wants to fill a wet space on their property so
they can build a house. But when you multiply that by millions
of houses and break all those (natural) connections with other
waters, you lose that filtering capacity.”
In Canada, Freshwater Future program director Andréa Dubé
is following Bill 23, Alberta’s Sovereignty Act, and other developments. “My concern is if the (U.S.) Supreme Court narrows
its definition (of federally protected waters), that’s just going to
embolden governments here to move forward. So I’m hoping
that we see a positive outcome for the conservation community
from the Sackett case. That would hopefully give them pause to
see what’s actually happening south of the border.”
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WAT E R C A N A D A . N E T
WATER C AN ADA • M AY/JUNE 2023
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