Environmental concerns require rethinking of this project

Architectural Conservancy Ontario has grave concerns about the expansion of the airport as currently planned.  The mission of our charity is to encourage the conservation and reuse of structures, districts and landscapes of architectural, historic and cultural  significance.  The serious and permanent impact of the proposed expansion is the destruction of an important landscape, and the disruption of the plants, animals, water supply -- the whole ecosystem -- of that landscape. 

Engineers may believe they can "mitigate" such damages by "enhancing" other wetlands or even recreating them elsewhere, but ecosystems are fragile, and especially vulnerable in these days of climate change.

The fact that the Kossuth Wetland Complex has been noted as Provincially Significant, and an International Biological Programme Site (Ministry of Natural Resources) and an Environmentally Sensitive Policy Area (Region of Waterloo) specially protected in its Official Plan, are strong indicators of the need to protect it.

The Kossuth Bog is one of the last remaining mature spruce bog forests in Waterloo Region. It is home to several species at risk, e.g. Blanding's Turtle, Bobolink, Meadowlark.  But more important than enumerating and possibly "protecting" one by one such significant components of the wetland complex is the need to conserve the entire landscape.

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.