Markham’s Oak Ridges Moraine lands cross the municipality’s northern urban edge and are connected to Lake Ontario through the headwaters of the Rouge watershed and its associated protected areas. Protecting groundwater recharge, headwater flow stability, and the forests that wildlife use for movement and migration depends on safeguarding this junction from encroaching development and infrastructure pressures. In the recent past, major concerns have surrounded the use of Minister’s Zoning Orders (MZOs) and other exclusionary or carve-out policy tools that can bypass normal planning scrutiny and weaken the effectiveness of ORM protections.