Oakvillegreen does not…

Oakvillegreen does not support Bill 66. It is a proposed legislation that spells devastating consequences for our Greenbelt, watersheds, farmland and wildlife, by rolling back decades of environmental protection acts.

It eliminates public consultation, by requiring NO notice and NO ability to appeal to the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal. Worst of all, Bill 66 will override any municipal Official Plans, created by municipalities with and for their citizens. All of these are contrary to democratic process.

The Issue
The provincial government’s Bill 66, called the Restoring Ontario’s Competitiveness Act, is proposed on the premise of “reducing red tape” for businesses seeking planning approvals and increasing employment.
The fact is that Halton Region has 2588 hectares of vacant Employment lands, much like other GTA regions. 46% of Halton Region’s land is already dedicated to employment lands. By allowing developers and industry to sidestep essential public health and environmental laws and to pave over the Greenbelt is simply NOT necessary.

The proposed legislation would undermine decades of non-partisan work to safeguard our environment, and the health of communities across Ontario. This “red tape” that the government keeps referring to are the vital regulations set out in the Planning Act, the Greenbelt Act, the Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Act, the Great Lakes Protection Act, the Lake Simcoe Protection Act, the Clean Water Act and more.

Schedule 10 of the proposed legislation proposes amendments which would override critical water, agricultural and environmental protections, without requiring municipalities to provide notice or public hearings. It opens up the Greenbelt for unnecessary factory, retail and residential development: A developer’s dream. It lets corporations ignore drinking water protection rules, and guts the laws that help industry reduce the release of toxic chemicals.

It’s hard to believe that despite how far we’ve come in understanding the value and importance of the environment around us, our provincial government is putting money in company pockets with complete disregard to our communal health and environmental prosperity. We can have economic prosperity... without sacrificing our health and the environment.

Thankfully, many municipalities, including the Town of Oakville, are denouncing Bill 66 and the Schedule 10 provision, saying they already have plenty of surplus land zoned for employment and development, that they won’t sacrifice our natural ecosystems and environmental health nor ignore valued citizen input.

This is NOT about affordable housing. This is NOT about job creation. This is NOT about “red tape”.
Bill 66 goes too far, threatening valuable greenspace, groundwater and farmland and the farming economy. It encourages greenfield urban sprawl that is costly to municipalities and to taxpayers and falls short of building transit-friendly, healthy, complete communities.

We urge you to Stop Bill 66.

Respectfully,
Karen Brock
President, Oakvillegreen Conservation Association