The answer to the housing…

The answer to the housing crisis is not simply building “more homes faster”. The answer is building more homes in the right place, of the right type. By proposing to allow development in the Greenbelt and decimating the power of Conservation Authorities (CAs) to regulate development, this bill is in fact endangering the very developments it is trying to build. Destruction of green infrastructure will lead to increased flooding, erosion, pollution, biodiversity loss, and reduced air and water quality.

Bill 23 proposes to repeal 36 regulations that allow CAs to have oversight over development. If these regulations are successfully repealed, Ontarians will be vulnerable to catastrophic flooding that will destroy homes and livelihoods. The bill also proposes to rework the wetland classification system which will lead to fewer wetlands being listed as Provincially Significant, which in turn will cause fewer wetlands to be protected. This will have devastating consequences at wetlands are some of our most powerful flood control mechanisms. Eliminating wetland protection willfully endangers Ontarians.

Further changes to the power of CAs include enacting provisions that would limit CA appeals of land use planning decisions, and there will be fewer barriers to cutting parcels of land into smaller parcels for development. This increases the risk of habitat fragmentation, cuts off natural water movement and therefore increases flood risk, and destroys ecological corridors for many species. Water resources, habitat, biodiversity, and public safety are all being put at risk. The only real beneficiaries are developers who stand to reap disproportionate profits at the expense of present and future human and non-human life forms.

Other appalling pieces of this bill are the proposals to eliminate public consultation for new gravel mines by moving mining approvals to lower-level staff, and to remove the democratic right of the people – who will shoulder the tax burden of these proposed changes – to appeal planning decisions, but preserving the right of aggregate companies.

This bill will exempt developers from paying charges that would otherwise feed government coffers. And where will this tax burden fall to maintain services? The ones you promised to protect: taxpaying citizens. They will be further endangered by these backward and short-sighted proposals. Bill 23 will destroy political, social, and environmental futures. It places the lives and livelihoods of Ontarians, present and future, in jeopardy.