I object to the proposal to…

I object to the proposal to revoke the Central Pickering Development Plan because it removes protections for the invaluable agricultural and natural heritage lands of the Duffins Rouge Agricultural Preserve in order to benefit developers.
The Duffins Rouge preserve encompasses some 1,902 hectares of what the Toronto and Region Conservational Authority (TRCA) describes as “prime agricultural land”. It includes the Seaton Trail: nearly 13 kms long, it sometimes meanders close to Duffins Creek, and other times it is high above it with panoramic views from canyon-like cliffs. It’s a dramatic topography that might surprise anybody who thinks the GTA and Ontario are flat and boring. It’s a mini-Bruce Trail, varied in landscape and well-maintained, about 30 kms from Toronto (Shawn Micallef, St. Catharines Standard, Nov. 19, 2022).
In 2005, this area was included as part of the new Greenbelt which was created to permanently preserve farmland, protect environmentally sensitive areas, and rein in GTHA sprawl. The Duffins Rouge Agricultural Preserve Act enshrined the agricultural status of the land in law, and earlier easements on the lands designated it ‘for agricultural uses only’ in perpetuity. These protections have been maintained by the courts despite 20 years of court challenges and lawsuits by prominent developers. Despite these failures, the same developers have continued to buy parcels of protected land and have continued their onslaught by employing lobbyists and making significant financial contributions to political parties, most notably the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario.
As part of the provincial government’s proposed changes to the Greenbelt Plan, the land in and around the Duffins Rouge Agricultural Preserve constitute the largest chunks of protected land that could be opened for development. And last week a bill to repeal the Duffins Rouge preserve status was unveiled, purportedly to remove barriers to housing development. The TRCA has stated that these proposals could result in large-scale unplanned urbanization and could negatively impact nearby watersheds. Unlike the typical process followed for other urbanization proposals, there has been no watershed plan … or environmental studies completed for this area involving the TRCA to help inform this decision. So, the proposal is to remove decades-old protections of valuable agricultural and natural heritage land without consulting the experts.
Ontario is already losing 319 acres of farmland a day (Ontario Farmland Trust). Given that we know the impacts of the climate crisis will cause devastating impacts to the global food supply in the decades ahead, it is foolish to give up hard-fought protections for prime agricultural land (Biodiversity and Climate Action Niagara).
To make this even more frustrating, it’s not necessary to sacrifice this precious non-renewable resource to build more homes faster. In communities across the GTHA there are 88,000 acres of land, close to transit and services, that have already been zoned for development. The Housing Affordability Task Force, in its 2022 report commissioned by the provincial government, notes that “a shortage of land isn’t the … problem. Land is available, both inside the existing built-up areas and on undeveloped land outside greenbelts…. Most of the solution must come from densification. Greenbelts and other environmentally sensitive areas [including farms] must be protected.” We need to build more housing, but it doesn’t have to be in protected areas like the Duffins Rouge Agricultural Preserve and surrounding area.
I am not a politician or a geographer or a municipal planning expert, but I can see from a map of the proposed Greenbelt land deletions in the area around Pickering (between Highway 407 and Finch Ave. E) who stands to benefits from these changes, and it’s not the people of Ontario.