I have reviewed ERO posting…

I have reviewed ERO posting 019-3136, which pretends to show interest in the Paris-Galt Moraine, while all this government’s efforts have been directed at UNDOING the CURRENT Greenbelt introduced in 2004 and legislatively designated in 2005.

Yes, the Paris-Galt Moraine DEFINITELY needs to be preserved and added to the Greenbelt, but the Ford government should gain scientific education regarding the need to preserve core natural areas in ALL the watersheds within the Greater Golden Horseshoe.

Yes, the urban river valleys desperately need to be included as the ‘Bluebelt’ within the Greenbelt, but this Conservative government has chosen to ignore the most important aspect of maintaining the health of rivers by reducing the function of Conservation Authorities to a voluntary commenting capacity, while undoing scientific watershed planning. Politicians are useless at planning, but the Ford government has assigned control over watersheds to them. If this is going to proceed, then campaign donations from corporations and developers MUST BE MADE ILLEGAL, so the politicians will get the shock of their lives when they realize they are supposed to serve the public first and foremost. The developers have their lawyers and lobbyists, so why do they now own Queen’s Park?

The rising debts and deficits at ALL levels of government show the public that NO government can be trusted to pick "economic winners". Quite the opposite, I'd say. If a project is viable, it should not have to be floated on a rising expanding 'ocean' of government debt levels, but that's what too many provinces (and Ottawa) use as a 'working economic model'. Politics, based on popularity contests and corporate campaign donations, clearly does NOT work.

This government’s current ‘bull-in-a-china-shop’ attitude toward the environment belies its supposed interest in expanding the Greenbelt in any direction.

I am convinced the Paris-Galt Moraine will fare no better than the Oak Ridges Moraine and Niagara Escarpment, which are being nibbled away by developments (and increasing aggregate extraction) that were grandfathered under both the ORM and NE Acts, as well as the Greenbelt Act. Grandfathering of OLD development permits on long-ago approved projects from the 1950s onward, show provincial governments never learn or understand the biological and geo-chemical processes of the landscape that underpin the survival of all life.

I have sent several communications to the GTA West Project Team, regarding the RAMMING of Highway 413 through the CURRENT Greenbelt lands. As you know, the original Greenbelt, established by former Conservative Premier Bill Davis is now a distant memory, BURIED under Toll Highway 407, with all the associated infilling that destroyed most of the farmlands and natural areas along the route, stretching both north and south of the toll highway.

Due to the secretive confidential agreement that Mike Harris signed with the international lessor of that highway until 2098, Ontarians are being gouged by usurious tolls after being forced to pay for assembly of the lands and development of Highway 407. Public debt on top of personal debt to service more public debt -- and this government wants to build ANOTHER toll highway??? (TOO MANY levels of government feeding off ONE level of taxpayer.) At the same time, Highway 407 is UNDER-utilized because the confidential contractual minimum capacity use of that highway has been set so low that trucks avoid it completely as do many commuters. So, we have a super-expensive under-utilized OVER-priced privately leased highway which has seen a stream of revenues being sent to fatten the accounts of some private off-shore operator – though the Investment Board of the CPP recently became the majority shareholder (in December 2020). Finally, a bit of Canadian control over an important revenue-generating utility (transportation) that should have remained in public ownership.

Allow me to quote a few items from the most recent response sent to me after I sent my concerns to the GTA West Project Team, regarding this destructive route through the CURRENT Greenbelt. While previous responses came from the GTA West Project Team, this one came from someone named a (A) Regional Director at some nebulous Ontario agency that exists under the acronym, PHM-CR-RD. What the heck is that? I googled those ‘letters’ and came up with one ‘hit’ on an escribemeeting item for retrofit noise barriers along Highway 403, requested by a resident who couldn’t bear the noise of Highway 403. The response from another ‘Director’ at this secretive PHM-CR-RD (@ontario,.ca) informed the resident that his subdivision was not built before 1977, so it didn’t quality. With all these noise and pollution issues, when is ANY provincial (or municipal) government going to recognize that this costly pace of conversion/destruction of the landscape is completely UNSUSTAINABLE??? And WHO or WHAT IS PHM-CR-RD with an email address at the Ontario government??

Anyway, here is the response that I received from PHM-CR-RD’s ‘Calvin’ regarding the ongoing destruction of the CURRENT Greenbelt:

“The government is committed to completing the GTA West EA to improve the transportation network, reduce travel times and help alleviate traffic congestion across the GTA. As the Greater Golden Horseshoe (GGH) is an economic driver for the province, addressing transportation needs in the GGH is essential to the competitiveness of our economy. Building more transportation infrastructure will help alleviate traffic congestion and improve goods movement in the Greater Toronto Area.

I would like to assure you that a comprehensive evaluation was undertaken by the GTA West Project team to determine the Technically Preferred Route (presented to the public at Public Information Centres in the fall). We understand that a new corridor crossing the Greenbelt cannot be avoided in some parts of the study area in locations such as Humber River Valley and the Credit River Valley. However, it is important to note that the Greenbelt Plan recognizes that infrastructure is important to economic well-being, human health and quality of life in southern Ontario and Greenbelt and that new and/or expanded facilities will be needed in the future to serve the substantial growth projected for the Greater Golden Horseshoe.”

As a member of the public, whose education includes science (chemistry), I am appalled at the apparent ignorance of bureaucrats and politicians as they scurry around, avoiding public consultation of any kind, while dictating how the landscape will be converted to please their closest political fund-raisers and donors. It is also important to mention that the final report of the GTA West Review Panel, which included expert highway engineers, recommended AGAINST building the GTA West Corridor. As usual, the Ford government demonstrated its complete rejection of science and engineering by siding with its friends in the development industry again. The Gravy Train Express for developers superseded the expert GTA West Review Panel to make many stops at the Premier's Office, or so it seems.

Here's what the Doug Ford government has done to ensure the CURRENT Greenbelt, and any potential scrap of nature, will be destroyed, like the previous Greenbelt:

(1) Streamlined and downgraded the EA process; the same for species at risk

(2) Reduced the Conservation Authorities to insignificance through Schedule 6 of Bill 229, jettisoning
scientific watershed management to politicians could look for campaign ‘gravy’ from developers by
allowing them to destroy watersheds; for example the Lower Duffins Creek Wetland Complex (now
subject of a judicial review thanks to Ecojustice)

(3) Heavy-handed unnecessary batch-processing of MZOs to give into developers, though
municipalities in southern Ontario have experience planning departments. MZOs were once used
rarely and only in remote areas that had NO organized municipal structure, but residents could
still have input. There is ZERO opportunity for input now.

(4) Introduced Bill 257, Schedule 3 which attempts to allow batch-processed MZOs to be exempt from
Provincial Policy Statements embedded within Ontario’s Planning Act so Provincially Significant
wetlands, farmlands, and Areas of Natural and Scientific Interest can be destroyed at the whim of
the Premier and MMAH, again in favour of developers.

(5) Introduced Bill 245, under the Orwellian name of Acceleration of Access to Justice Act 2021,
specifically DENYING appeals by the public to whatever might have been left over in terms of
public consultation.

• Bill 245 includes Section 6, which merges five tribunals into a powerful mega tribunal called the
Ontario Land Tribunal. The tribunals being merged include the Local Planning Appeals Tribunal
(LPAT) (formerly the Ontario Municipal Board), the Mining and Lands Tribunal, the Conservation
Review Board, the Board of Negotiation, and the Environmental Reviews Tribunal.

• This new Ontario Lands Tribunal will now adjudicate disputes on a broad swath of matters related
to land use planning, from heritage designations to compensation for expropriations to new
municipal zoning laws.

• Community members and municipalities have little say – the tribunal can dismiss a proceeding
without a hearing if they believe the proceeding has no reasonable prospect of success.

(6) Section 10 of Bill 245 amends the Environmental Protection Act, the Mining Act, the Nutrient
Management Act, 2002, the Ontario Water Resources Act, the Pesticides Act, the Safe Drinking
Water Act, 2002 and the Toxics Reduction Act, 2009 to remove provisions that permit specified
matters to be appealed to a minister of the Government of Ontario, and to provide for regulation-
making authority in each case to address any transitional matters that may arise as a result. A
consequential amendment is made to the Resource Recovery and Circular Economy Act, 2016.

No one is fooled by all these legislative changes aimed at handing the Ontario landscape over to domestic and international developers, while ignoring the public interest. This government seems unaware that, when it won the 2018 election, people were punishing Kathleen Wynn for ignoring public input until the last few months of her term. Since then, the Doug Ford government's only purpose for existence has been dedicated to getting rid of public consultations, starting with the disastrous Bill 66. Then, municipalities were side-lined, and all powers handed over to the Premier and MMAH.

Someone needs to fix this awful mess. If this is going to be the Ford government’s ‘legacy’, it is a very shameful, expensive and destructive one.