Bill 66 rides roughshod over…

Bill 66 rides roughshod over several laws that protect our environment and specifically control unnecessary urban spread into sensitive or agriculturally essential areas. The laws and bylaws establishing the Green Belt and updating Provincial and Municipal plans to protect this were made for a specific reason which still applies. They are not "red tape". To allow any body, whether it is a municipality or a private developer to contravene existing plans is undemocratic and will not serve to bring new jobs or business to Ontario. It is bad enough that the old "Ontario Municipal Board" was allowed to overrule Official Plans. That has been corrected by the new LPAT rules. Bill 66 undoes all that good work and is a massive retrograde step in local and provincial planning. It must be stopped.