The proposal to remove 15…

The proposal to remove 15 areas of land, 7,400 acres, from the Greenbelt north of Toronto and to add 9,400 acres of Paris Galt Moraine lands is like removing pieces from one part of a jigsaw puzzle and tacking them onto another! These are two entirely different considerations, which deserve to be treated separately. I will address myself to the first question only.

The hardworking members of the Ontario Housing Affordability Task Force, appointed by Premier Ford, must be horrified! Their first recommendation was accepted: to make a priority of setting a bold goal of adding 1.5 million homes over the next 10 years. But the government that appointed them has made a mockery of the balance of their work. This was not a taskforce of conservationists or ‘lefties’: the majority of the Task Force members were real estate industry people, bankers, an urban planner.

Premier Ford’s own Ontario Housing Affordability Task Force was clear: “a shortage of land isn’t the cause of the problem. Land is available, both inside the existing built-up areas and on undeveloped land outside greenbelts.” They were clear in their concern that “growth is pushing past urban boundaries and turning farmland into housing… Most of the solution must come from densification. Greenbelts and other environmentally sensitive areas must be protected, and farms provide food and food security…Allowing more gentle density also makes better use of roads, water and wastewater systems, transit and other public services that are already in place and have capacity, instead of having to be built in new areas.” In other words: more gentle density would give us better value for our tax dollars – which is what this government claims to want, isn’t it?

The Ministry’s “proposed details” indicate that these 7,400 acres “would result in the construction of approximately 50,000 or more new homes” – as if that is a good thing. At less than 7 homes per acre, the Affordable Housing Task Force members would be aghast! This means more of the exact “single-detached or semi-detached homes” that they point to as the problem – and these will by no means be affordable! It means once again giving developers the low hanging fruit: land they can readily clear-cut for the mass production of cookie-cutter subdivisions. This is exactly how we have been wasting land throughout the Greater Golden Horseshoe Area. So: what happens when that 7,400 acres has been built out? What part of the Greenbelt and its diminishing farmlands goes on the chopping block next?!

While there was evidence-based science behind the identification of the lands to include in Ontario’s Greenbelt, there is no science behind this first incursion into them. Be assured: if this first 7,400 acres is allowed, it will prove to have been only a test case – because these 50,000 homes are a drop in the bucket of the 1.5 million goal: leaving 1,450,000 remaining.

Now is not the time to begin eating into Ontario’s Greenbelt. Now is the time to act on the recommendations of Premier Ford’s own Housing Affordable Housing Task Force such as “More housing density across the province” and incentives of “Financial support to municipalities that build more housing.”

As has been pointed out time and again: there are 88,000 acres in the Greater Golden Horseshoe area that have already been approved for development. Building a low level of medium density averaging 17 homes per acre would enable us to reach the target of 1.5 million homes: including truly affordable homes – with ready access to important existing urban resources, assuming that the municipal tax base is supported to maintain them. Let’s get moving!