Submission on ERO 019-7739:…

Submission on ERO 019-7739:
Proposal to Return Lands to the Greenbelt – Greenbelt Statute Law Amendment Act, 2023
I support the direction of the proposed bill to return land to the Greenbelt. However, I find that the overall direction of the government since 2018, which painted environmental protections as red tape while seeking to expedite its Housing Action Plans, as ill-advised, courting future catastrophe on watershed security, biodiversity, climate change, regional agriculture, and aligned issues.
I am concerned that the Province is unaware of and/or disinterested in planning for protection of the water resource system, both groundwater and surface water, within the Greenbelt.
It is quite clear to most observers that the Ontario government’s efforts on the Greenbelt, municipal boundary expansions, and other initiatives have each experienced numerous contradictory policy changes, many of which seem to have been made in the absence of any strategic coherence or meaningful consultation, thereby significantly weakening public trust in the government.
In addition to those missteps, the government appears to be missing in action on protecting natural heritage in an era of the biodiversity and climate crises, as well as not protecting provincial food security.
I suggest that the government redress its recent actions on the Greenbelt with a more assertive and visionary set of initiatives.
1. Amend and/or provide measures to ensure the implementation of meaningful public consultation for future changes to the Greenbelt prior to presenting the Greenbelt Statute Law Amendment Act, 2023, to the Legislature;
2. Eliminate the restrictions on environmental assessment for new infrastructure in the Greenbelt from its immediate footprint to their more fulsome impacts, such as may occur to areas adjacent to construction or with respect to lighting, migratory routes, noise, run-off, temperature, etc; and,
3. Significantly expand the Greenbelt.
4. Legislate that the 10 year Greenbelt Reviews can only add lands to the Greenbelt with no land removals or land swaps.