The province broke a…

The province broke a longstanding promise to keep Ontario’s Greenbelt intact when it removed a plan to remove about 7,400 acres of land from the protected area to build housing. The land added to the Greenbelt in the Paris Galt Moraine in no way makes up for this land that is lost. Further, the premise that developers could offset negative impacts of their construction near small woodlands, wetlands and other natural spaces interwoven near urban areas by replacing them elsewhere or paying to compensate for their loss is simply untenable.

The excuse that these lands are needed for housing is unfounded and untrue. According to Ontario’s Housing Affordability taskforce, “a shortage of land isn’t the cause of the problem...land is available.” The Task Force further advised that “Greenbelts and other environmentally sensitive areas must be protected, and farms provide food and food security. Relying too heavily on undeveloped land would whittle away too much of the already small share of land devoted to agriculture.” (p. 10)

Ontarians heard Doug Ford say, “I heard it loud and clear people don’t want me touching the Greenbelt, we won’t touch the Greenbelt.”

Cutting and pasting parcels of land onto municipalities to make way for subdivisions onto environmentally protected areas is a negative strategy. It jeopardizes water resources, wildlife habitat and diversity, protection of species at risk and the value of these natural assets. The only real beneficiaries are the developers.

Paving over the Greenbelt will create more climate challenges, wildlife loss and flood damage. Eroding the Greenbelt is at the cost of the legacy we leave for the next generations.