The City of Ottawa has just made a mockery of the Environmental Assessment proces s by cancelling the Schedule C EA it was

conducting on the flooding impact of KN Ls planned water diversion in Kanata. This decision was reached after the Phase 1 of the EA uncovered embarrassing facts about errors in the planning process, violation of Certificate of Approval by KNL, and that further development would lead to flooding in North Kanata. In August 2011, during a private review held for KNL by John Moser head of the C itys Planning Dept, KNLs engineering consultants asked that the EA be changed to a Schedule A process so that it could be conducted by them under the subdivision approval process. Changing from a Schedule C to a Schedule A process means that the requirements of the EA are effectively replaced by the subdivision planning approvals process and that no further public engagement is necessary. A subsequent unreleased engineering analysis done in August by the City (obtaine d under access to information) confirmed that 8 homes in Kanata would be at risk of flooding if KNL were allowed to proceed with any further development in the South March Highlands. According to the Ministry of Environments Regional Manager, the MoE District Engi neer (Charles Goulet) and the Citys Hydrological Engineer (Darlene Conway) concur red in Sept 2011 that a Schedule C process was appropriate from an engineering p erspective. However, John Moser and the Citys Planning lawyer Tim Marc, continued to press th e MoEs legal department for permission to change the EA to a Schedule A. Since t heir rationale for this request was not made public, and appears to have been do ne behind the backs of the professional engineers involved, it would appear tha t it was done solely to avoid further embarrassment to both KNL and the planning department. On Dec 5, the MoE agreed to give the City the latitude to cancel the Schedule C and proceed with a Schedule A project if they so desired. In doing so, the MoE has essentially abdicated its responsibilities under the EA Act by reasoning tha t EAs in Ontario are proponent-driven; apparently meaning that a municipal proponen t can write its own rules. Subsequently, on Feb 13, the City advised the MoE that the Schedule C was discon tinued and that they would proceed with a Schedule A that would be integrated un der the Planning Act with the subdivision approvals process. In other words, le d by the very developer who created the mess in the first place. Please write to Mayor Watson (jim.watson@ottawa.ca ) and Councillor Wilkinson (M arianne.Wilkinson@ottawa.ca ) and tell them that it is unacceptable for lawyers to be meddling in engineering matters especially when public safety is compromis ed. The citizens of Ottawa deserve better planning and open government. ****> Please also attend a public meeting convened by the City regarding this is sue, March 26 at 6:30pm at the Mlack Centre in Kanata. Its time to end this type of corruption of Ontarios environmental protection process. Paul Renaud