Ontario’s Greenbelt is a…

Ontario’s Greenbelt is a natural workhorse that filters our drinking water, purifies our air, grows our food, and provides habitat for endangered and threatened species. Close to millions of people in the GTHA, the Greenbelt is a place people rely on for mental wellbeing and physical heath. Its Class 1 farmland and complex ecosystems are hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of years in the making.

Industry interests like the Ontario Stone Sand and Gravel Association (OSSGA) are completely arrogant and plain wrong when they claim they can create ‘habitat by design’ to gain permission from the province to destroy species-at-risk habitats. As if they can construct complex ecosystems. Along with developers who have 80,000+ acres of already approved land to develop outside of the greenbelt, the gravel mining industry in Ontario already has permission to mine 13X annually the amount of grave we use per year. There is a glut of both approved land to develop and approved gravel to mine. Neither industries need the Greenbelt.

This government’s scheme to sell off 7400 acres of currently protected Greenbelt to rich developers reeks of corruption. The connections between PC Party donors and proposed Greenbelt lands to develop are blatant

As the recipient of the inaugural Friend of The Greenbelt Award, I was honoured with presenting the award the following year to former Ontario Premier Bill Davis. Mr. Davis was the architect of the Niagara Escarpment Plan, Canada’s first environmental land-use plan, and the backbone of the Greenbelt. As a Conservative, Premier Davis established a legacy of conservation to benefit future generations. I am very sure that if Mr. Davis was alive today he would absolutely reject and fight against this government’s underhanded land-grab.

The Ontario Government’s Affordable Housing Task Force released a report in Feb 2022 that found that ‘a shortage of land is not the problem’ for the housing crisis. Stop trying to pull a fast one and enrich yourself (Premier Ford), your party, and a small handful of rich developers who are looking for payback from land speculation that did not go in their favour 15 years ago. (*according to developer Silvio DeGasparis in conversation w National Post newspaper)

The Greenbelt is working for all Ontarian's, unlike this government. It must be protected in its entirety, for food security, air quality, flood protection, carbon sinks, biodiversity etc. It is an irreplaceable ecological refuge and working landscape, and will only increase in ‘natural capital’ value as the years progress.