The proposed amendments to…

The proposed amendments to the Greenbelt Act will undermine its essential purpose of ensuring permanent protection for the vital farmland and natural systems that provide Ontarians with food security, clean water, safety from flooding and access to nearby nature. 

The vast majority of Ontarians support Greenbelt protections and are opposed to removing any Greenbelt protected land. That is why in 2018 Doug Ford said that he “heard the people loud and clear” and that “unequivocally” he wouldn’t touch the Greenbelt. 

According to the government’s own Affordable Housing Taskforce report, there is no need to remove 7,400 acres of valuable farmland and natural areas from Greenbelt protection when 88,000 urban acres across the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA) are already primed for development. 

Of the proposed additions to the Greenbelt, the majority are in Urban River Valleys that are already protected from development. This is in no way an equivalent swap. Instead, land swaps put the entire Greenbelt at risk, the proposal would set a destructive precedent that the Greenbelt will be sacrificed whenever land speculators want to develop them.

The removal of Greenbelt lands will exacerbate the practice of land speculation putting pressure on farmers within the Greenbelt to sell valuable farmland thereby reducing local food production. It will also divert construction resources away from building homes where they are needed within existing urban boundaries to building expensive and environmentally damaging sprawl.  This will do nothing for those who need affordable housing now. 

Removing farmland and natural areas from the Greenbelt would harm climate resilience by undermining the integrity of the watersheds and natural systems in and around the Greenbelt.

And there is this…

“The Government of Ontario’s tabling of Bill 23 is a blatant violation of First Nations’ inherent, domestic, and international rights over their ancestral and traditional territories,” said Ontario Regional Chief Glen Hare. “Bill 23 will inevitably harm Ontario’s environmental heritage and weaken land and water environmental protection.”

Tabled on October 24, 2022, Bill 23: More Homes Built Faster Act is the Government of Ontario’s latest omnibus bill that, if passed, will have detrimental impacts on nine different development and environment-related acts under the guise of addressing Ontario’s housing crisis.

“First Nations have been given no opportunity, nor the adequate capacity to be consulted regarding the tabling of Bill 23 and its significant changes to Ontario’s legislative and policy landscapes. It is deeply concerning to the Chiefs of Ontario that the mandate of the Indigenous Affairs Ontario (IAO) office, which is to ensure collaboration amongst ministries engaging and consulting with First Nations on policy and legislative changes, continues to be unfulfilled.

Unilateral legislative and administrative changes within Bill 23 without consultation or engagement with First Nations are unacceptable and an abuse of power. The unprecedented steps taken by the Government of Ontario violate existing Treaties, and their will to systemically sell off resources will have dire consequences for First Nations and future generations.