This proposal is outrageous…

This proposal is outrageous and constitutes yet another way of decreasing land and natural heritage protection in this province by this government to add to the multitude of other inexcusable changes that have already been made and, no doubt, will continue to be made in the future.

This government constantly sends out news releases about the help being provided to the agriculture sector on the one hand and then removes some of the best agricultural land in Canada from food production on the other hand. However, even more disgusting is the inclusion of Core Natural Areas in some of these proposed removals from the Greenbelt. We already have lost so much natural area in southern Ontario and to do so with the blessing of the government is frankly unconscionable.

As has been noted many times in the media, the government’s own Housing Affordability Task Force clearly stated that lands in the Greenbelt were not needed to address the problems with housing in Ontario. In fact, the amount of land already designated for development is far in excess of what is needed to meet long-range housing targets. That includes 86,500 acres within the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area alone. There is nothing in this proposal that appears designed to build affordable housing.

So, who exactly is this government listening to when coming up with this proposal if not experts? Well, it certainly appears to be wealthy, Conservative party donating land owners and developers. There has not been a single good reason provided to justify breaking a promise that was plainly stated on many occasions, including in the following:

From the Proposed Amendment to the Greenbelt Plan - Growing the size of the Greenbelt (ERO #019-4485) posted on March 24, 2022 -

The Key Principles for Expanding the Greenbelt identified in phase 1 were also applied. In particular,

1. No removal or land exchanges proposed
o This proposal is about growing the size and quality of the Greenbelt, and the government will not consider the removal of any lands from the Greenbelt.

In less than eight months, has there really become more of a ‘housing crisis’ than there was at the beginning of the year? I don’t think so. Why is the size of the area of Urban River Valleys not mentioned anywhere? Why are you adding lands that are never going to be developed anyway to the Greenbelt? It isn’t a bad idea to do so, but if you are using the addition of river valleys as justification for removing upland areas then it is entirely misleading to the public to say that the size of the Greenbelt is being increased. The addition of the so-called Paris Galt Moraine lands in Erin is apparently another inclusion of lands that are already protected by the local municipality and do not constitute the majority of this valuable landform that does need protection.

This government should just honour its original promise to not touch the Greenbelt, but we all know that the decision has already been made no matter how many people provide comments on this proposal. And yet, the fact that people are still willing to spend time commenting should let you know the extent to which Ontarians are appalled by what is being proposed.