City of Ottawa

The removal of over 55 hectares of PSW within the Goulbourn Wetland Complex came to the attention of Friends of Stittsville Wetlands last fall. These changes had already been published by Land Information Ontario, the Mapping and Information Resources Branch of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry.

Despite the removal of the PSW designation through the application of the weakened Ontario Wetland Evaluation System, these wetlands are still identified as PSW in the City of Ottawa’s Official Plan. On March 22, 2024, City staff provided an initial community “heads-up” informing that the City had initiated an application to make minor amendments to the Official Plan and Zoning By-law 2008-250 concerning the boundaries and status of existing evaluated wetlands in the rural area. Through this “heads-up” we learned that the Goulbourn Wetland Complex is not the only PSW under threat within our City.

On April 8, 2024, the Planning Department circulated the formal notification of its initiation of an Omnibus Report to make minor amendments to the Official Plan and Zoning By-law 2008-250 concerning the boundaries and status of existing evaluated wetlands in the rural area. The deadline for comments is May 6, 2024. 

A staff report was originally to be considered by the City’s Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee on July 4, 2024, however, the report was withdrawn. The consideration of the staff report was subsequently rescheduled to September 5, 2024. The staff report can be found here.

This will be our opportunity to deliver a compelling message to gain support from the Ottawa City Council to request the Government of Ontario to reinstate strong protection measures for wetlands across Ontario.