The Ontario Provincial Climate Change Impact Assessment (OCCIA 2023) documents increasing precipitation intensity, hydrological volatility, and flood frequency across Ontario.4 The Auditor General of Ontario’s 2022 report on urban flood risk documented billions of dollars in flood-related municipal infrastructure losses and found that existing floodplain mapping substantially underestimates actual flood risk in many communities.5 Flooding events in spring 2024 and spring 2026 across the Sudbury, Ottawa, and Lake Erie watersheds caused widespread municipal infrastructure damage and emergency costs. Municipalities that accept floodplain-adjacent land as parkland will inherit maintenance liability and public safety responsibility for lands that are demonstrably at increasing flood risk.
ORA submits that floodplain-adjacent lands, including valley lands and riparian corridors that fall within but near the boundary of identified hazard areas, should be explicitly ineligible for developer-identified parkland credit, not merely eligible on an undefined condition.