Broken Promises – Ontario Government Poised to Carve Up the Greenbelt

Despite repeated promises that there would be no removal of lands from the Greenbelt, the Government of Ontario is proposing to do just that: carve 7,400 acres out of the Greenbelt for development (ERO #019-6216 and #019-6217).

Their excuse – that these lands are needed for housing – is unfounded and untrue. The amount of greenfield land already designated for development, and added to municipal settlement boundaries, but still sitting unbuilt far exceeds what is needed to meet long range housing targets. That includes 86,000 acres within the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area alone. According to Ontario’s Housing Affordability ...

Despite repeated promises that there would be no removal of lands from the Greenbelt, the Government of Ontario is proposing to do just that: carve 7,400 acres out of the Greenbelt for development (ERO #019-6216 and #019-6217).

Their excuse – that these lands are needed for housing – is unfounded and untrue. The amount of greenfield land already designated for development, and added to municipal settlement boundaries, but still sitting unbuilt far exceeds what is needed to meet long range housing targets. That includes 86,000 acres within the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area alone. According to Ontario’s Housing Affordability Task Force, “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)

Harmful precedent and loss of permanent protection
The proposed removal of Greenbelt lands sets an alarming precedent, opening the Greenbelt to development at the request of those who stand to reap immense profits – and at the expense of the rest of us. Stripping these 7,400 acres of protection would unleash a firestorm of land speculation and development pressures across the entire Greenbelt.

Harm to the Greenbelt’s Natural Heritage System
Most of the lands to be removed from the Greenbelt (10 of the 14 areas shown on the maps) overlap with the Natural Heritage System, which supports “the highest concentration of the most sensitive and/or significant natural features and functions” and is meant to be managed “as a connected and integrated natural heritage system, given the functional inter-relationships between them.” (Greenbelt Plan, sec. 3.2.1)

Land swaps put the entire Greenbelt at risk
Don’t be fooled by the government’s proposal to sugar-coat the bitter pill of removing land from the Greenbelt by adding 9,400 acres. Some of the proposed replacement lands are already off limits for development (e.g., publicly owned lands designated as municipal parks and open space). Further, these lands were already part of the government’s previous Greenbelt expansion proposals – the Paris-Galt Moraine in 2021 and the Urban River Valleys in 2022. Those proposals went nowhere, despite great fanfare at the time. And now, the government is dusting them off to soften the blow of removing lands from the Greenbelt.

Please join Ontario Nature in holding the government to its promises and opposing land removals from the Greenbelt. The deadline for comment is December 4, 2022.

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Photo credit: Greenbelt © John Vetterli CC BY-NC 2.0

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Oppose Greenbelt Land Removals

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Minister Steve Clark, Municipal Affairs and Housing
Local MPP
[email protected]

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Subject:

Dear Minister Clark,

I am writing to express my strong opposition to your proposal to remove 7,400 acres from the Greenbelt (ERO #019-6216 and #019-6217).

I do not accept your government’s misleading premise that these Greenbelt lands are needed for housing.

The amount of greenfield land already designated for development, and added to municipal settlement boundaries, but still sitting unbuilt far exceeds what is needed to meet long range housing targets. As you know, in its 2022 report, Ontario’s Housing Affordability Task Force stated that a shortage of land isn’t the cause of Ontario’s housing problem and that Greenbelts, environmentally sensitive areas and farmland must be protected.

The proposed removal of Greenbelt lands sets an alarming precedent, opening the Greenbelt to development at the request of those who stand to reap immense profits while the rest of us pay the tab. Land swaps put the entire Greenbelt at risk. Most of the lands to be removed from the Greenbelt overlap with the Natural Heritage System, which supports sensitive and significant natural features, and is supposed to be managed by your ministry as a connected and integrated natural heritage system.

The importance of permanently protecting lands and waters within the Greenbelt cannot be overstated. It is key to building the resilience of local food systems, protecting at-risk habitats and species, and sustaining the physical, social and economic health of the nine million Ontarians living in the Greater Golden Horseshoe. Not only are we facing the interconnected and accelerating crises of climate change and biodiversity loss, we are also losing 319 acres of farmland daily. The protection of natural and hydrological systems and farmland must be prioritized. They are finite, irreplaceable and invaluable for community and ecosystem health and resilience.

For the sake of current and future generations, I urge you to abandon your plans to remove 7,400 acres of protected lands from the Greenbelt.

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