Ontario’s Greenbelt was…

Ontario’s Greenbelt was created in 2005 to protect the headwaters of the rivers that flow into Lake Ontario. It was also created in order to limit urban sprawl. It was created to preserve valuable farmland. It was also created to connect myriad forest and wetland ecosystems from Niagara Falls and across the GTA encompassing the Oak Ridges Moraine. As a result, the Greenbelt is one of the most important biologically rich and biodiverse areas in the entire country. Ontario's Greenbelt is the world's largest, protecting 2 million acres of farmland, forests, wetlands, rivers, and lakes.
Bill 23 will open up the Greenbelt for development by removing 7,400 acres of precious farmland and natural areas from protection. Already 319 acres of farmland is being lost each day (Statistics Canada).

Where I reside, in an area just outside the Greenbelt, 1000 acres of Class 2 farmland has been lost in the past two years to residential development.

319 acres can produce more than 23.5 million apples, 1.2 million bottles of Ontario VQA wine or 37.1 million strawberries.

Agriculture and food in Ontario is a major economic driver contributing $47 billion annually to the provincial economy and employing nearly one million Ontarians through skilled labour, trades, technology, innovation and more. The loss of thousands of acres of agricultural land has the potential to jeopardize our domestic supply chain and local food production. The impact will be felt on consumers today and for future generations. We will have to rely on imported food and will be at the mercy of supply and demand. No one is making more farmland. Tens of thousands (55,000 and counting) have signed OFA’s Homegrown petition.

Yet, over 10 times as much land is ready for the development of mixed housing in communities where people already live.

Ontario’s Housing Affordability Task Force explained in its 2022 report “a shortage of land isn’t the cause of the problem. Land is available, both inside the existing built-up areas and on undeveloped land outside greenbelts.… Most of the solution must come from densification. Greenbelts and other environmentally sensitive areas must be protected, and farms provide food and food security.”

There are so many interdependent diverse ecosystems throughout the Greenbelt, that are now faced with extinction. We are dependent on the environment for our survival. These ecosystems on the Greenbelt, at the current moment, provide an economic value of $224M per year in flood protection for private property and $52M per year in carbon sequestration. The Greenbelt provides $3.2B annually in ecosystem services.

Developers are interested solely in profit – and residential units will ultimately not be affordable. The new ‘affordable’ definition of 80% of area residential values means house will still be out of reach for most.

It will mean that Greenbelt protected lands will be sacrificed when land speculators want to develop them to build expensive homes in sprawl development. This would mean death by a 1000 cuts to the Greenbelt.