Johnston Point – Environmental Rights Nowhere in Sight
Enshrined in our Environmental Bill of Rights (EBR) is the right of all Ontarians to participate in decisions that significantly impact our natural environment and our future. Sadly, never in the history of our Lake Association has there been a more environmentally significant provincial decision rendered so environmentally insignificant. Public participation in decision-making on Johnston Point over the course of the last seven years has been fueled by the conviction that if this Plan of Condominium is allowed with the multiple layers of provincial protection and diversity of species at risk for the mere sake of 15 houses, then NO place in Ontario is sacred from development.
The County’s granting of a 3rd extension for Johnston Point this past January speaks volumes. The public was refused a County delegation and Township Council was forced into a situation of not formally commenting under threat of “potential litigation and liability exposure if there is anything done to try and prevent this from moving forward.” That is not to say that Township Council did not comment. The public recording of their council discussion clearly captures their frustration and exasperation as they are explicitly advised to “not make a motion against the application or against the extension.” As summed up by one councillor, “History has shown that in this particular file the County of Frontenac seems to be more than happy to extend draft plan approval as many times as they wish, without referencing this body at all.” Jan 12, 2021 Township Council Meeting
Johnston Point is home to six independently documented species at risk on the Ontario list - Butternut (endangered), Myotis Bat (endangered), Blanding’s Turtle (threatened), Gray Ratsnake (threatened), Eastern Whippoorwill (threatened) and Snapping Turtle (special concern). The Township’s independent expert peer review noted suitable habitat for nine other species at risk that have never been independently assessed - Cerulean Warbler, Least Bittern, Eastern Wood-PeWee, Wood Thrush, Golden- winged Warbler, Milksnake, Eastern Ribbonsnake, Northern Map Turtle and Broad Beech Fern. Species at risk habitat on Johnston Point is part Provincially Significant Wetland, Provincially Significant Woodland, Provincially Significant Wildlife Habitat and Fish Habitat, and Area of Natural and Scientific Interest (ANSI) identified and recommended for protection by the MNRF in 1993. (All species at risk and the ANSI designation had been overlooked in the developer’s environmental assessments of Johnston Point). As stated in the Natural Heritage Reference Manual: “ANSIs play an important role in the protection of Ontario’s natural heritage, since they best represent the full spectrum of biological communities, natural landforms and environments across Ontario outside of provincial parks and conservation reserves.”
There is global significance too. Loughborough Lake and surrounding area was designated in 2002 as an UNESCO (Organization) Biosphere Reserve known as the Frontenac Arch. Ironically, in the weeks prior to the County’s granting of the 3rd extension, Johnston Point was featured in Striking Balance, a documentary series on Canada’s Biosphere Reserves, to spotlight development that threatens the Frontenac Arch’s connectivity, biodiversity and species at risk, which is the essence of the biosphere.
“Environmental standards could not be more elevated. It is unfortunate and regrettable and deplorable that the project, and those standards have not been respected here before...... all your comments which are completely justified and make perfect sense.” (Gavin Marshall, Principal, Magenta Waterfront Development Corp. June 4, 2019).
This was the developer’s own admission in requesting the first extension when the Conditions of Draft Plan approval for Johnston Point were set to expire for the first time. It should have been reason enough for government, at every level, to support the corrective action Township Council took then in voting 6-2 to stop development from proceeding. The CRCA and the MNRF had no comment. Yet, they are the experts our government has repeatedly stated it relies on to ensure environmental protection and assessment of the Natural Heritage. The County, as final approval authorities, also chose to ignore fundamental environmental implications of the developer’s admissions and Township Council’s recommendations. Neither the public nor Township Council were aware of the second extension until after the fact. It was granted by the County in a “Special Council Meeting to Consider the 2020 Budget” only days after the declaration of the COVID-19 state of emergency.
Since proposal of this development in 2014, Township Council have been the acting authority on Johnston Point directly engaged in implementation of the Conditions of Draft Plan Approval. The three County extensions make a mockery out of Township Council’s effort to uphold environmental mandates and the democratic process that has provided vital public scrutiny to assist in their environmental decision- making. They parallel the Ford Government’s hammering away at environmental protections from the top down to further streamline development.
2018. Amendment of our Environmental Bill of Rights to terminate the Office of the Environmental Commissioner (ECO) - the legal guardian of our EBR which the public relies on as our independent environmental watchdog. That announcement came the day after the MNRF posted notice of an Overall Benefit Permit for Johnston Point and the ECO released her annual Environmental Protection Report citing Johnston Point “as an example of how the public’s environmental concerns are often left out of the municipal planning process.” In her 2017 Environmental Protection Report, the ECO had highlighted the systemic “utter failure” of our government to address species at risk: “... The MNRF has never denied an ESA permit [ie Overall Benefit Permit] to any applicant ... Big Changes Needed to Protect Species at Risk. The ECO still stands behind the ESA in principle – it is a good law that has the potential to protect and recover species at risk. But as we have now reported on many occasions, the MNRF has utterly failed to implement the law effectively. With each passing year, the extent of this failure becomes more clear – the ministry has reduced what should have been a robust system for protecting species at risk to what is largely a paper exercise. The MNRF is failing to not just protect species at risk as intended under the law, but also to lead effective recovery programs. In the best case, the MNRF has created a system that leaves itself with a minimal role to play; in the worse case, it has a created a system designed to fail”.
2019. The 10-year review of Ontario’s Endangered Species Act (ESA) with amendments that “streamline approvals and provide clarity to support economic development” (Environmental Registry # 013-4143). The ECO’s 2017 annual report could not have been clearer on the need to strengthen the ESA for its intended purpose. Gordon Miller, our former ECO (2000 to 2015), warned of the dire environmental consequence on Johnston Point: “Putting a condominium development along nearly its entire length is an extreme case of conflicting values – between species at risk conservation and residential development ...On Johnston Point, the species and habitat loss will be absolute...” ER Statement Gord Miller
2020. Section 6 amendment to the Conservation Authority Act under Bill 229. The Canadian Environmental Law Association (CELA) called it “ the most recent, in a disturbing trend ... of using omnibus budget measures bills to make substantive changes to environmental laws and thereby sidestepping the public’s EBR rights.” It harkens back to 2014, when the County first asked the CRCA for an assessment of the Johnston Point proposal, and the CRCA immediately called for deferral over species at risk concerns and the need for the protection of natural heritage features. CRCA assessment Aug 8, 2014.
The history of decision-making on Johnston Point is testament. Only in principle do environmentally significant provincial decisions seem to matter for our government. Other than in rhetoric, our government expressly chooses to prioritize economic development over rising to the challenge of protecting our rights to a healthful environment and ensuring we achieve what are now widely understood as existential goals of protection, conservation and restoration of the natural environment for the benefit of present and future generations. In these historic provincially significant times, and in the face of unprecedented uncertainty, we the people seem to be left void of trust, leadership and agency. The campaign to protect and restore this local gem and provincial Natural Heritage treasure has been nothing short of a campaign to reclaim environmental policy and legislation for its intended purpose and our common good. It is about Striking Balance, continuing to shine Johnston Point as the provincially significant environmental decision that it truly is, and letting it speak to the heart of protecting and restoring Ontarian’s Natural Heritage and environmental rights for generations to come.
