Re: ERO Notice 026-0229 –…

Re: ERO Notice 026-0229 – Proposal to Revoke the Parkway Belt West Plan, 1978

I am writing to oppose the proposed revocation of the Parkway Belt West Plan.

While the government frames this as administrative modernization, it represents a real and meaningful reduction in the strength of legal protection for a 120 km corridor that has served Ontario for nearly 50 years. Replacing a dedicated provincial land use plan, with its own legal standing, with references to policy language in the Provincial Planning Statement 2024 is not equivalent protection. Policy statements can be amended, overridden, or selectively enforced. The PBWP cannot.

The argument that municipalities have already incorporated these protections into their Official Plans was made in the context of the Greenbelt as well. That precedent does not inspire confidence.

Further, the proposed Parkway Belt Transmission Corridor Study, offered as a replacement protection for electricity infrastructure, has not yet identified or legally protected any land. Revoking hard legal barriers before replacement protections are in place is the wrong sequence.

This proposal gives future governments and developers significantly more flexibility to carve out exceptions on lands that are currently protected. Given this government's track record on land use, including the attempted Greenbelt removals, the public has reasonable grounds to be skeptical of assurances that protections will be maintained through softer instruments.

I urge the Ministry to maintain the Parkway Belt West Plan until any replacement protections are legally established and demonstrably equivalent, not proposed, not forthcoming, but in place.

Thank you for considering this submission.