I write to add my voice to…

I write to add my voice to the extraordinary, ongoing public outcry in opposition to Bill 23.

I offer my comments briefly and at the 11th hour, due to a medical crisis in my family. But I am here despite that crisis. My comments reflect decades of engagement in land-use, environmental and housing issues in Ontario and citizen participation in these issues in Peterborough and the Kawarthas.

I specifically endorse the Reimagine Peterborough submission to this process, dated November 25, 2022. In particular, I wish to emphasize the following.

Bill 23 indefensibly betrays your government’s constantly repeated evidence- and science-based commitment to maintain the Greenbelt. It does so in support of economically and environmentally unacceptable pre-climate-change-era car-dependent greenfield sprawl, for private profit.

Urban intensification — building up and in — in vibrant mixed use development in and near downtowns and along transit-supportive corridors is the solution citizens and cities want and need. This approach has overwhelming support in Peterborough, as reflected in our new draft Official Plan.

Years of fresh citizen consultation in this community show zero public tolerance for further attacks on wetlands and their buffers, connected nature corridors, and prime farmland. The quality and supply of our region’s water; Ontario’s biodiversity; and the health of our ecosystems is at stake in the choices you are making. This Bill is a breathtakingly irresponsible short-circuiting of multiple forms of required public consultation, in defiance of established science and policy.

The fast-tracked ramming through of Bill 23, no less than your government’s recent misuse of the notwithstanding clause, is a massive overreach citizens will not accept.

Repeal Bill 23. Our environmental heritage and the principles and laws that protect it are not for sale to any government’s developer friends. The tens of thousands of people in the streets over this in cities across southern Ontario these past two weeks barely hint at the outrage felt by many who were unable to participate.

Your own government, along with cities and engaged citizens, has the 21st century policies you need and the staff who understand them. We are ready and willing to help with environmentally responsible housing supply on repeal of this bill.