Comments on Keeping the…

Comments on Keeping the Promise to Never Again Remove Land from the Greenbelt
Greenbelt Statute Law Amendment Act, 2023 ERO 019-7739
Attention Minister Paul Calandra, Premier Ford and Members of the Standing Committee on Heritage, Infrastructure and Cultural Policy,

I think the Government of Ontario was correct in putting back the lands it originally took out of the Greenbelt. The original decision to remove the lands was flawed, showed a complete misunderstanding of why the Greenbelt was originally created, and made the Province of Ontario more vulnerable to the upcoming effects of climate change.

The Government of Ontario needs to:

a) Ensure that protection of the Greenbelt is permanent and sacrosanct for the future citizens of the Province;
b) Ensure that the boundaries cannot be changed;
c) Stop supporting urban sprawl in the Province which is very poor municipal planning;
d) Consider that ALL municipalities in this Province already had enough land for development within their boundaries;
e) Promote increased population density where apropos and realistic;
f) Achieve the 30% level of land protection as recommended by the various United Nations international agreements and COP conferences;
g) Promote the use of electrical vehicles and the development of related electrical recharging infrastructure;
h) Promote the use of Solar Power and abandon inefficient Industrial Wind Turbines;
i) Add lands, where apropos and necessary to both the Greenbelt and the Niagara Escarpment;
j) Realize that a lot of Ontario’s drinking water and food come from the Greenbelt, and that is a major reason to keep it permanently.

Now the Government of Ontario has removed/repealed much of the environmental laws which essentially has put the Province back to the late 1940’s when there were virtually no such laws. We are there once more. How can you expect the Greenbelt to be protected if the environmental laws that once protected it are removed and international goals to limit or even stop climate change are not followed. Do the following corrections and the Greenbelt and its boundaries will both be protected and sacrosanct:

i) Return the Conservation Authorities back to what they were before 2018. I remember the reason that the Conservation Authorities were enacted - Hurricane Hazel. I remember the night it went through. That’s why we don’t allow development in ravines and flood plains and that is why C.A.’s were originally involved in development planning;

ii) Ontario has lost 70% plus of its wetlands. The Wetlands Evaluation System was a great piece of legislation before Bill 23. Why was it denigrated for the expediency of development. We need wetlands. Let’s protect them with the original pre-Bill23 System. We owe it to ourselves and the future citizens of the province;

iii) Let municipalities do the planning they did pre-Bill 23. The municipal plans for the most part were well thought out by local planning staffs. Let the municipalities plan at the local level as before and the Province to work with the municipalities through their plans;

iv) Encourage inbuilt densities on already existing lands;

v) Cancel the ill-advised planning for the Bradford Bypass and Highway 413. If the spirit of
this amendment is to be followed then no Greenbelt lands and/or agricultural lands around Lake Simcoe should be taken away for 2 highways that have been shown to not be needed and which will cost the taxpayers of Ontario in a wasteful way.

vi) Return the Endangered Species Act 2007 to what it was before 2018. We owe it to the
native flora and fauna;

vii) Climate Change is occurring and there seems to be no planning for it or the future. Plan for it. Increase the size of the Greenbelt to prevent some of its effect.

viii) Plan on preventing wildfires in the Greenbelt;

ix) Protect the Greenbelt aquifers for drinking water;

x) Remember the future citizens of Ontario. The Greenbelt is their legacy as it is ours.

Thank you for the opportunity to comment.