While our Mary Lake Campaign started the fall with increased media presence thanks to articles in The Narwhal and ON Nature Magazine, we're still uncertain whether our most recent legal action has finally paused development at Mary Lake, an important hydrological and wetlands feature outside the settlement area of King City.
In January 2024, Concerned Citizens of King Township (CCKT) and STORM filed a Request for Investigation with the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP) and copied the Ministry of Natural Resources. We hoped the Ministry would support our argument and confirm that King Township's approved plans breached regulations limiting or, in the case of the Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Plan (ORMCP), fully prohibiting stormwater discharge into sensitive kettle lakes like Mary Lake.
As before, we're deeply concerned that discharging potentially contaminated dewatering discharge and stormwater laden with urban contaminants would be the death knell for Mary Lake's ecological integrity and its 10 fish species including Largemouth Bass and Northern Pike and several minnow species.
By June 2024, we received written confirmation that the MECP had conducted an investigation, including two onsite inspections on February 6 and May 7, 2024. After these inspections, they informed us that "ministry staff did not observe any incidences of non-compliance, nor any contraventions of the EPA or the OWRA associated with the proposed facility."
This response was largely expected. Since construction dewatering isn't yet occurring, and the stormwater management system hasn't been built, Augustinian Fathers (Ontario) Inc. (AFOI) hasn't yet followed through with our alleged contraventions. The MECP report further notes, "the ministry has determined the results of the investigation do not demonstrate any compliance or enforcement action is necessary currently."
The MECP's language is crucial: Action isn't currently necessary, but that doesn't mean it won't be in the future.
By submitting our investigation request, we were testing whether the Ministry would act proactively or reactively. We wanted to see if the MECP would prevent a violation or only act once a violation has occurred. We now know the MECP will only act once damage to Mary Lake has begun.
Now that the MECP has been officially informed of the situation, they were forced to inform the township, property owner, developer, and consultants of their legal requirements under the Environmental Protection Act, Ontario Water Resources Act, and Endangered Species Act. But this also doesn’t mean that the AOFI won’t look for alternative means of working around these restrictions. For instance, and as it has come to our attention, the AFOI is currently appealing recent changes made to King Township’s Countryside Zoning By-law 2022-053.
While we can't confirm if our actions have slowed, paused, or halted development at Mary Lake, we know that the AFOI is well behind their proposed timelines and hasn't proceeded with digging and laying their foundation or pumping dewatering discharge or stormwater into the lake.
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