I strongly oppose the Ford…

I strongly oppose the Ford government's plan in Bill 23 to allow developers to use Greenbelt property.

The excuse of providing housing for immigrants is ridiculous for several reasons. In 2018 Ford assured developers that he would "open up a big chunk of protected GTHA farmland to build housing." This move is toward urban sprawl is more about short term profit for already invested developers than housing that could be achieved with infill and intensification (opening up 4-plexes) around transit hubs. Suburbs will create worsening traffic problems and contribute to more car usage which is counterproductive to efforts to alleviate climate change. The 11 Greenbelt parcels of land to be opened also just happen to be owned by some of his party’s most generous donors, as an investigation by Toronto newspapers found.

The Ontario Housing Affordability Task Force, an expert government panel that examined the issue last February concluded that “a shortage of land isn’t the cause of the problem.” The task force said the real issue is that 70 per cent of land zoned for housing in Toronto,and 50 per cent across the province, is restricted to single-detached or semi-detached homes – the lowest density that exists. This is a bad model which is untenable and costly to the environment as well as taxpayers.

Then there's the problem of paving over farmland. Max Hansgen, president of the National Farmers Union for Ontario said the proposal to remove farmland from the Greenbelt will harm farmers and their capacity to supply the province with food. "These proposed actions would also take away farmers' rights to appeal development decisions that could harm their land and farm businesses and would make it much easier for land speculators to turn irreplaceable farmland into unsustainable urban sprawl," he said. Ontario will lose precious, diminishing farmland needed to grow our own food forcing us to truck in food from greater distances.

And more insidious is that this bill will allow the mayors of Toronto and Ottawa to adopt bylaws related with just one-third of the council vote; it will curtail the ability of provincial Conservation Authorities to comment on projects and dramatically reduce the development charges collected by municipalities to cover the cost of infrastructure, such as new parks and transit.

I hope that there is a way to stop this bill and protect the Greenbelt (which was supposed to be protected in perpetuity) and also keep the democratic process intact in municipalities and reinforce powers of conservation authorities.