Great Lakes coastal wetlands are rich with biodiversity and provide many ecosystem services. Their importance is known to ecologists and Indigenous peoples, but are also recognized as being nature based solutions that can help buffer against the harmful effects of climate change. Unfortunately, most of the coastal wetlands in southern Ontario are lost and recent provincial legislation has severely weakened wetland protection for the remaining. The practice of offsetting developed wetlands with restored or created wetlands will not work. Restoration projects can only bring back a fraction of the ecosystem services they are meant to create. For the sake of our children’s children, we need to return to protection of wetlands as a priority.