ERO-026-0693: Proposing changes to streamline approvals under the Public Lands Act and modernize compliance provisions; ERO-026-0676: Proposed regulation under the Public Lands Act to allow for travel on closed roads on public lands; ERO-026-0692: Allow dry hydrants on public lands, Ministry of Natural Resources letters of 5 August 2026 on the Public Lands Act and the Crown Forest Sustainability Act, 1994

These proposals remove the Ministry from the decisions that matter most to Ontario’s rivers: what is dug or drilled on a lakebed, what is filled or built on a floodplain, who drives a closed road into remote country, and how a dam is approved. MNR has told the public that its enforcement tools are limited, and it has not delivered the public registry it promised. Ontario’s air, land, water, fisheries, wildlife and communities depend on rigorous Ministry review of the harm that development causes. ORA urges MNR to withdraw these proposals, restore site-specific review, and put enforcement and public transparency in place before any further permit is removed.