To: Mayor and Members of Council

From : Jim Baird, Commissioner of Development Services
Valerie Shuttleworth, Director of Planning and Urban Design
Lilli Duoba, Senior Project Coordinator, Environmental Planning & Rouge Park

Date: November 21, 2006

Subject: Draft Rouge River Watershed Plan
Toronto and Region Conservation Authority and Rouge Park Alliance

In June 2003 the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority and the Rouge Park Alliance commenced the Rouge Watershed Planning Study. The purpose of this study was to update the previous Watershed Strategy prepared in 1990 entitled ‘Rouge River Comprehensive Basin Management Strategy’ and to fulfill the requirement of the Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Plan which requires that watershed plans be prepared for lands within the Oak Ridges Moraine. The Province has recognized watershed scale planning as an appropriate scale to address the management of human activities, land, water, aquatic life and aquatic resources. The Rouge Watershed Plan is being prepared by the Conservation Authority with the assistance of an appointed Task Force and includes a public consultation component.

Town staff participated in the Rouge watershed planning process. We provided staff level comments on the “State of the Watershed Report” in August 2004 and on the “Sustainable Community Scenario Report” in April 2006. On November 8, 2006 the Town received copies of the draft Rouge Watershed Plan report with a request for staff comments by November 17, 2006. The Rouge Watershed Task Force is expected to approve the final Rouge Watershed Plan on November 30, 2006. After Task Force approval, the TRCA intends to circulate the Watershed Plan to municipalities to be received. The draft Rouge Watershed Plan provides a comprehensive list of recommendations that outline the direction in which they recommend municipalities and other partners proceed to meet the objectives outlined in the Watershed Plan. Many of the recommendations will have significant process, budget, staffing and regulatory implications for municipalities and public agencies.

The draft Rouge Watershed Plan can be downloaded from the TRCA website. The link is:

http://www.trca.on.ca/water_protection/strategies/rouge/

The summary of the recommendations is located in Appendix ‘F’. The TRCA also plan to release a detailed ‘Implementation Guide’ to help interpret the recommendations of the Watershed Plan, but this document has not yet been prepared.

Town staff submitted a letter (November 14, 2006) to the TRCA requesting that the TRCA and Rouge Watershed Task Force provide Markham staff and Council with opportunity for additional review, dialogue and formal comments (see attachment) Staff also requested that the Watershed Plan not be finalized until Markham Council has commented on the Plan.

The Rouge Watershed Plan has been circulated internally for comments and staff will bring forward a report on this matter in early January 2007. TRCA staff will be notified when the item is scheduled to be considered by Markham Council, and will be invited to make a presentation.

Q:\Development\Planning\MISC\MI460 RPA\Rouge Watershed Task Force\memo to Council Nov 2006.doc