Re: ERO-019-7561 – Proposal…

Re: ERO-019-7561 – Proposal to return lands to the Greenbelt (Amendment to Greenbelt Plan)
ERO-019-7562 – Proposal to return lands to the Greenbelt (Amendment to Greenbelt Boundary Regulation O.Reg. 59/05

Dear Sirs:

The Ontario Rivers Alliance (ORA) is a not-for-profit grassroots organization with a mission to protect, conserve and restore riverine ecosystems across the province. The ORA advocates for effective policy and legislation to ensure that development affecting Ontario rivers is environmentally and socially sustainable.

In response to the proposal to return lands to the Greenbelt, the ORA offers our strong support for all lands that were removed from the Greenbelt on 14 December 2022 being immediately returned to the Greenbelt, as per the proposed Amendments to the Greenbelt Plan and the Greenbelt Area Boundary Regulation O.Reg 59/05.

ORA also recommends that all lands this government added to the Greenbelt land to compensate for the December 2022 removal of Greenbelt lands remain within the Greenbelt under the protection of the Greenbelt Act, 2005, and Greenbelt Plan.

Once the land is returned to the Greenbelt, it must remain designated as Greenbelt with all the relevant land use restrictions, and any future removal must be made extremely onerous through protective amendments to the appropriate legislation.

ORA also requests that all recommendations made by the Auditor General of Ontario in her Special Report on Changes to the Greenbelt, dated 9 August 2023, be fully adopted and action taken.

Thank you for this opportunity to comment!