I was in construction project management for years and years.
In 1994 the government of the day had said that we needed to start to densify our communities and we needed to start getting more use out of the infrastructure that we had, and we needed to stop degrading the environment. I took that very seriously. I was walking my dog and standing just north of a power plant and the moon came up and its reflection hit the water. I turned around and looked over my right shoulder and I could see Cawthra Road and Lake Shore. I looked over my left shoulder and I could see Lake Shore and Dixie Road. They're a mile and a quarter apart. This was such a massive site, but it was just a complete industrial wasteland. I thought that if we could get rid of the coal plant and we could do something else with this site, we could create a better future for our children and our grandchildren.
I think that's really the focus and the goal of this committee.
Take the example of the wetlands project. The Region of Peel was willing to spend $75 million to take all of that dirt and drive it out of the GTA and dump it in a hole. We have a crisis in the GTA in that there is nowhere to put fill.
This young lady's point is really great, that we have to concentrate on the south. Across the waterfront of the GTA, we've eliminated 93% of our wetlands and we've armoured 85% of our shores. As soon as you eliminate wetlands, you stop helping nature clean the water for you. When you talk about having the environment in an urban forum, what we need to do is reinstitute more things like this.
With a project like this we're going to reinstitute wetlands for $41 million as opposed to the $75 million that the region was willing to spend to dump the fill. Not only are we going to reinstitute wetlands, put in fish spawning beds, and fix two totally degraded creeks, we're going to create a much better experience for the people who live in that community because now they will be able to connect to nature.
We can start to understand what it's really all about and what we all need to do, as leaders, in the future. Fiscally, it's the right thing to do, so to me, that's what we need to be focused on.