By Doug Draper
One of the most significant steps Ontario’s Liberal government has taken to protect our natural heritage over its more than six years in power – and possibly the only significant one – was the creation of the “Greenbelt” in the greater Golden Horseshoe of this province five years ago this March.
The areas in green highlight Ontario's Greenbelt, where agricultural and other lands are intended to be off limits to urban sprawl.
Ontario’s Greenbelt – protecting some 1.8-million acres of agricultural and environmental sensitive lands stretching east of the Toronto area above Lake Ontario and around the lake to the shores of the Niagara River in our greater Niagara region – received a prestigious award from the Canadian Institute of Planners two years ago as a model for protecting and preserving what is left of some of our most precious rural lands from continued, low-density urban sprawl.
Yet it has also been an ongoing bone of contention and it has even been vilified by some as an assault on the rights of farmers and others within its boundaries to do what they want to with their land, and as an impediment to development for municipalities that find themselves, to use one of the words of some municipal leaders, “locked” in it.
This March 31, Niagara’s regional government is hosting what it is calling a “Greenbelt-After-Five Years Summit at the Four Points Sheraton in Thorold, Ontario, and a day-long summit that involves a registration fee of $100 and features a host of speakers from this region and beyond. This site will include more details on the summit agenda and how and where to register later. Continue reading
Niagara At Large 
