Thank you for the…

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on this initiative. I have reviewed the Summary Proposal and am pleased that the current government is contemplating the addition of the Galt-Paris Moraine to the Greenbelt. I am taking this as a 'serious' request to comment rather than as a public relations piece to distract GTA environmentlists interests away from the current government's poor environmental-protection track record.

I am a land use planner of advancing years now, and I have lived, worked and raised my family in this area over the past 60 years, and my ancestral heritage spans back to the Waterloo Region from the early 1800s. In terms of my educational credentials, I have a planning degree from the University of Waterloo and a Rural Studies PhD from the University of Guelph. I have worked in both the provincial and municipal planning systems, and most recently, I was a municipal planner with the City of Guelph for over a 20 year time-span.

The Paris-Galt moraine resource is well known and has been extensively acknowledged in the literature over the past century. The significance of the feature has been clearly defined in the Chapman and Putman (1951) publication “The Physiography of Southern Ontario” which explains the significance of the moraine in much detail, i.e., a terminal glacial moraine with significant ecological and groundwater protection attributes.

The moraine has been extensively studied, and studied and studied over the past 60 years. I am personally aware of its consideration as a defining land use element from work in the Waterloo-Wellington Local Government Review in the 1960s, the Toronto-centred Region Plan (1970s), and then more recently SmartGrowth initiatives in the 1980s-1990s, and then the Places to Grow and other associated Plans (Oaks Ridges Moraines, Greenbelt) from the 2000s. Local municipalities have also considered the moraine in their local guiding land use plans, but we are now at a point where decisive action from the senior government on the file is required.

The protection of the resource has now come to a head – as evidence, there is much squabbling amongst the local folk that reside, work, study and play within the area. The main local municipality in the area, Puslinch Township, is pock mocked with a hodge-podge of disjointed land use activities where any type of rural land use is permitted, i.e., rural industrial uses, agriculturally related uses (car dealerships, offices, gas stations, etc.), diversified farm uses, on-farm diversified uses, aggregate operations, older houses/new estate houses, recreational facilities, etc. etc. In addition to these aforementioned land use activities, the land base is criss-crossed with all manner of infrastructure corridors (roadways and rail lines, wired and piped services). As the current government's Places to Grow 'forced growth' into the western region of the GTA increases over the next 30 years, the carrying capacity of the water/land base of the area will be negatively exasperated, and a sustainability disaster of some sort is destined to happen. Local municipal planning controls are insufficient to head off future issues, especially in light of matters of water supply scarcity/quality control and impacts of climate change.

The Paris-Galt Moraine land base comprises pockets of natural and agricultural areas that have many land characteristics to the existing Greenbelt area. The moraine's land base provides the groundwater supplies for the existing residents/businesses occupying the area. The potential contamination of these water supplies are at great risk by the diversity of surface land use activities including aggregate operations. The GRCA Conservation Authority is trying its best to protect the quality/quantity of the drinking water supplies via Source Water Protection mechanisms, and other provincial government legislation.

The current provincial government has attracted a lot of negative attention to its poor handling of the ‘environment protection file’, i.e., MZOs to permit development on Provincially-significant wetlands and agricultural lands, the mass-resignation of the Province’s Greenbelt Council (who are the advisors to the government on protecting and managing the Greenbelt), the weakening of environmental protection powers of Conservation Authorities, the challenges to recognizing climate change impacts to our society, the dismantling of the Environmental Commissioners Office . . . I could go on and on, but I think this is sufficient to make my point. The current provincial government needs to act NOW and protect the moraine feature, once and for all – local municipalities are not doing the job; environmental organizations, and good environmental stewards on the ground (few and far between) are not able to keep up to the onslaught of exurbia from the GTA impacting the fragility of the land/water system of the area. Please government, listen to the scientists that are arguing for the protection of this area.

The mapping provided (see attachment) clearly illustrates that the settlement areas of the south part of Guelph and the eastern edges of Cambridge have already intruded into the resource feature; these intrusions may be characterized as being minor to date, but the integrity of the overall resource may be at risk by the myriad of land uses, local land use actors and political entities that operate in the area. The cumulative impacts of all the current activities have not been well documented other than through Tier 3 source water protection planning efforts of the GRCA, i.e., no co-ordinated impact assessment from a rural-agricultural-aggregate user perspective has been prepared. These difficulties could be rectified quickly through a natural/agricultural area protection designation offered through the creation of the Greenbelt expansion into the area.

The ‘study area’ should move to greenbelt expansion adoption quickly – a post pandemic response to build a resilient quick economic recovery if you will. The expansion of the Greenbelt is the highest priority amongst the various other government priorities that are listed in the ‘background notes’ – in terms of Growth Management there will not be further growth if there isn’t a sustainable water supply to support existing populations/employment; Natural Heritage and Water Resource Systems will be protected; Agricultural Resources will be maintained if further development in the ‘protected countryside’ is provided for; Infrastructure expansion pressures will be diminished if development on only ‘rural partial services’ is the desired form of servicing in this rural Greenbelt expansion area.

In preparing the protections for the area, the government should be mindful of the existing protections that local municipalities already have in their land use planning documents. Do not create a system that diminishes the local environmental-protection controls through 'weasel clauses', i.e., notwithstanding exemptions to special economic forces that the current government deems important (builders/developers, aggregate operators). The current government has an opportunity to diminish its poor record on the environmental front prior to the next provincial election. Expand the Greenbelt to encompass the Paris-Galt Moraine lands NOW.

I wish you all the best as you plan for the best interests for the ‘folks’ of the area, now and for future generations.