I would like to briefly…

I would like to briefly state my objection to the Proposed Amendments to the Greenbelt Plan, ERO 019-6216

It is necessary to start with an incontrovertible fact: the Greenbelt was created by the Ontario Government in 2005 after careful consideration which included consultations and studies. The Greenbelt was created to protect sensitive environmental areas and farm land. The Commission charged with defining the boundaries of the Greenbelt, lead by Rob McIsaac, based its determination on science, not politics.

By contrast, there appear to be no studies justifying the current Government’s decision to convert protected Greenbelt lands into development lands. That is, the Government has provided no studies:
• demonstrating a need for these lands to be developed when 88,000 acres of land have already been approved for new housing; and
• demonstrating that there will be no detrimental environmental consequences to the removal or development of these lands from the Greenbelt.

In fact, there is huge risk to the people of Ontario in removing these lands. Much has been written about this by environmental experts who oppose the Government’s actions. The Ontario Greenbelt Steering Committee has summarized the risks as follows in its Statement regarding the Provincial Announcement to remove lands from the Greenbelt:
• the destruction of 7,400 acres of Greenbelt farmland and natural areas and the vital ecological benefits they provide;
• harming climate resilience by undermining the ecological integrity of the watersheds and natural systems that are in and around the Greenbelt;
• setting a destructive precedent that Greenbelt protected lands will be sacrificed when land speculators want to develop them therefore creating an ecologically damaged “swiss cheese” Greenbelt;
• allowing land speculators to put pressure on farmers within the Greenbelt to sell their valuable farmland thereby reducing vital local food production;
• the diversion of limited construction resources away from building homes where they are needed to building expensive and damaging sprawl homes on what was once Greenbelt protected land;
• building homes that will likely not be affordable therefore doing nothing for those who need affordable housing now.

The manner in which this Government is rushing through Bill 23 and the accompanying amendments to existing legislation has precluded in any meaningful consultation with the public. The significance of the changes proposed to the Greenbelt are drastic and will lead to irreversible damage that can only worsen the effects of climate change and lead to lasting harm to future generations. The furious outcry against these proposed changes and the undemocratic manner in which they are being implemented by scientists, environmentalists and countless ordinary citizens like me underlines that a consultation process that is transparent and robust is needed to truly measure what science and the public say about these changes. Providing a webpage and tight timelines for the public to submit comments without any assurance that those comments will be read, let alone given consideration, is contemptuous of the people of Ontario.

Therefore we are at this point: it cannot be disputed that the Government’s decision to push development of Greenbelt land will ensure that real harm occurs to the environment; the Government has failed to provide any credible justification for the need to develop these Greenbelt lands let alone any assurance that using these Greenbelt lands will provide affordable housing; and the Government is implementing these changes with a lack of transparency that is simply undemocratic. Added to these facts must be the recent disclosure in the press that developers purchased tracts of the very Greenbelt property to be released under the Government’s plan only weeks before the Premier’s announcement that those very lands would be released. This announcement was made despite the Premier’s promises that he would “not touch” Greenbelt lands. There are stories in the press that developers who purchased these lands have been financial supporters of the PC party. All of this leads inexorably to an inference that there was at the very least an illegal leak of information and at worse that there is something far more nefarious going on. The Government owes it to the people of Ontario to reverse this process immediately.