New Act regarding the Duffins Rouge Agricultural Preserve easements and covenants.

A new Act would be proposed that would continue the protection of the easements and covenants applicable to the lands covered by the Duffins Rouge Agricultural Preserve Act, 2005 (DRAPA) to protect the lands for agricultural uses.

This proposal aligns with the proposal to introduce legislation that would return lands to the Greenbelt that were removed in December 2022 by incorporating the description of the Greenbelt Area directly into the legislation.

Additional context:

In December 2022, the government took action to address the housing supply crisis and build 1.5 million homes by 2031 by making changes to the Greenbelt. This action was in addition to a variety of other measures intended to tackle the housing supply crisis, including four housing supply action plans to date, and was intended to support municipalities in planning for responsible growth and to help build housing, while leading to an overall expansion of the Greenbelt.

To accommodate Ontario’s expected growth and support the building of more homes, the government removed or redesignated 15 areas of land totaling approximately 7,400 acres from the edge of the Greenbelt Area (ERO Posting 019-6216: Proposed Amendments to the Greenbelt Plan) and repealed the DRAPA(ERO Posting 019-6304: Repeal of the DRAPA​. At the same time, a portion of the Paris Galt Moraine was added to the Greenbelt, along with 13 Urban River Valleys (see ERO Posting 019-4485: Growing the size of the Greenbelt), totaling 9,400 acres, for an overall expansion of approximately 2000 acres.

In response to the feedback by Indigenous communities, the public, municipalities and stakeholders and the recent reports from the Office of the Auditor General of Ontario and the Integrity Commissioner of Ontario, the government introduced proposed legislative amendments that would:

• Add 15 sites back to the Greenbelt that were removed in December 2022 by incorporating the description of the Greenbelt Area and Oak Ridges Moraine Area boundaries directly into the legislation.
• Eliminate the authority to remove lands from the Greenbelt Area and Oak Ridges Moraine Area by regulation so that any future removals would require legislative change to the Greenbelt Act or the Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Act
• Revoke the existing Greenbelt Area boundary regulation (Ontario Regulation 59/05) and the existing regulation that designates the Oak Ridges Moraine Area (Ontario Regulation 1/02)
• Undo the redesignation of lands to Settlement Area in the Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Plan 
• Provide for a concurrent amendment to the Greenbelt Plan's land use schedules to restore the same protections to lands that they had before the 2022 amendment.
• Continue to provide that no Plan amendments can be made that would reduce the total area in the Greenbelt Plan, and
• Restore the same protections for easements and covenants on the lands in the Duffins Rouge Agricultural Preserve that they had before the 2022 amendment.

The amendments, if passed, will maintain the lands added to the Greenbelt in 2022, which includes a total of 9,400 acres (13 additions of Urban River Valleys and lands in the Paris Galt Moraine area).This bill would fulfill the government’s commitment to fully restore these lands and provide protections to the Greenbelt moving forward. At the same time, the government remains committed to tackling Ontario’s housing supply crisis and working with municipalities to achieve our shared housing targets.