In 2008, the reason why offsetting was proposed
was that the Niagara Peninsula Conservation
Authority (NPCA) had a policy to protect locally
significant wetlands. It was proposed to “offset” the
destruction of a wetland area desired by the
developer, by creating a new wetland on a site
damaged in the past by spills dumping conducted
by the former Ontario Hydro (now Ontario Power
Generation).This proposal went nowhere because
the wetland that was proposed to be destroyed
became protected by being upgraded in its status to
provincially significant. Under the current rules,
such lands are protected from development and site
alteration.
It needs to be understood that the wetland that
originally sparked the first pr