Greenbelt Rant

A few days ago I emailed the OPP at oppa@oppa.ca today to ask if they weregoing to investigate how Ford's government handled removing lands assigned tothe Greenbelt. I don't expect them to admit if they are investigating or not,but I wanted to let them know that someone thinks they should. You have to be apatheticor complicit to not see that the process was corrupt.

I watched, for about three minutes, Ford's televised response to the devastatinginformation in the Auditor General of Ontario's special 2023 report on Changesto the Greenbelt, before it became obvious that he was just going to spew moregarbage about our need for housing instead of addressing the shady, underhandedbusiness that occurred in the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housinginvolving the Housing Minister's Chief of Staff. Specifically, that 92% of theacres excised from the Greenbelt were suggested by two developers, or the factthat the developers purchased the 5 sites before the land was identified andexcised.

We in the Haliburton Highlands havebeen blessed this year as far as the consequences of climate change areconcerned. Unfortunately, the rest of the country and the world have not beenas lucky. The Editor’s Desk of The Bestof Maclean’s (August 2023) put it like this:

“This summer, all over the country, there is no escapingthe impact of a warming planet.

The swath of land in Canada that burned over the lastfew months is unfathomable. The fires have wiped out nearly 25 million aces,roughly the size of Iceland. I did not expect the future to arrive so quickly.Experts and activists predicted wildfires, floods and smoke years ago, and yetthe sheer volume of climate catastrophes in the last few months was a shock.Parts of Europe reached 46 degrees, India was hit by deadly floods, Japan hadthe heaviest rainfall ever and Arizona experienced record breaking heat.”

And yet Premier Ford sells offparts of the Greenbelt to his supporters with no concern for the environment,or the benefits of the Greenbelt to the environment and in mitigating climatechange.

The Auditor General’s SpecialReport points out that “In 2007, the Housing Minister at that time (a Liberal) wona prestigious national planning award from the Canadian Institute of Plannersfor the Greenbelt Plan and recognition of excellence in natural systemsplanning.” If you search for Greenbelt information you will see the following:

“Ontario’sGreenbelt protects farmland, communities, forests, wetlands and watersheds. Italso preserves cultural heritage and supports recreation and tourism inOntario’s Greater Golden Horseshoe.

The Greenbelt Act, 2005 provides the authority for the creation of the GreenbeltPlan (2017).

The GreenbeltPlan establishes the Protected Countryside and Urban River Valley designations.The Greenbelt Area also includes the Niagara Escarpment Plan area and the Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Planarea (2017).

The threeGreenbelt land use plans work together with A Place toGrow: Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe toprotect the natural environment and determine where and how growth should beaccommodated in the region.”

The Greenbelt Act created a Greenbelt Council to advise the Ministry ofMunicipal Affairs and Housing and other government ministries about proper useof the protected lands, but the Ford government chose to ignore theirrecommendations and included in the 2020 budget a section called Schedule 6which effectively castrated all institutions concerned with environmentalstewardship. David Crombie (former federal MP and former mayor of Toronto)resigned his position as chair of the council along with 6 other councilmembers over Schedule 6. The Greenbelt Council remains gutted with no Chair andonly four councillors appointed by the Housing Minister out of a possible nine.This is understandable, why have a full council if you are just going to ignoretheir advice.

It is obvious when you look at what the Ford conservative government hasdone that the premier has lied about not touching the Greenbelt and continuesto deceive the people of Ontario about his true intentions. There is nothing wecan do about him except expose the truth and hope people realize how corrupt heis before the next election. But the staffers involved in the selloff ofGreenbelt land are not elected figures, so hopefully the OPP can look into themand their corruption. I have my fingers crossed. Although my crossed fingerswon’t do anything to influence a Conservative government who refuses toacknowledge that Climate Change exists.

©Dave Skinner Aug. 2023