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It’s time for Niagara’s local municipalities and regional government to “get their act together” on public transit – Debbie Zimmeran, an Advisory Panel member, CEO of the Grape Growers of Ontario and former Grimsby regional council and chair of the Region of Niagara
By Doug Draper, Niagara At Large
December 8th, 2015
A six-person advisory panel, hosting former Toronto mayor David Crombie as its chair and Debbie Zimmerman, CEO of the Grape Growers of Ontario and a former Grimsby councillor and chair of Niagara’s regional government as one of
Advisory panel member and former Niagara Regional Chair Debbie Zimmerman
its members, tabled a lengthy report this December 7th, listing 87 recommendations for updating provincial plans for protecting watersheds, greenspaces and farms, and for making communities in Niagara and other regions in the Greater Golden Horseshoe healthier, more prosperous places to live, work and play.
“We must step up our efforts to curb sprawl, build complete communities, grow the Greenbelt, support agriculture and address traffic congestion,” states an executive summary of the report the panel drafted after more than 10 months of consultation and submissions received from thousands of individuals and groups across the Greater Golden Horseshoe (GGH).
“We owe it to current and future generations to ensure that the GGH supports healthy lifestyles, a high quality of life, a sustainable environment and a prosperous economy,” adds the panel which concludes its report by urging the government to act on its recommendations “in a comprehensive and timely fashion” to strengthenfour provincial plans it was instructed by the province to review.
Those plans include the Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshow, the Greenbelt Plan, the Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation and the Niagara Escarpment Plan, and the panel is calling on the government to strengthen them with an eye to protecting and expanding greenbelt lands, and building smarter, more complete communities for the 21st century.
“Our sense of place in this beautiful part of the Great Lakes Basin relies on the care we invest in our natural and cultural heritage,” says the report. Natural features and functions, including water resources and biodiversity, are essential to support healthy, prosperous communities that are resilient to climate change.”
“Drastic reductions in greenhouse gas emissions are essential to reduce our contribution to climate change. Decreased vehicle emissions will also pay huge dividends in improved air quality throughout the region,” continues the report.
“We heard from stakeholders and the public that climate change mitigation and adaptation must be explicitly addressed in the four plans in order to reduce Ontario’s greenhouse gas emissions while also preparing to manage the risks of a changing climate to our health, safety, economy, ecosystems and infrastructure,” says the report. “We view climate change as a critical driver for many of the policies in the four plans, one that needs to be brought into the mainstream of all our planning and development activities.”
A forest stream in the Oak Ridges Moraine, a significant ecosystem for the health of the Lake Ontario watershed. Photo courtesy of Ontario Nature and Jason Kambach.
“During the consultations,” the report says, “we heard from many stakeholders and individuals that traffic gridlock is one of the greatest issues affecting individual health and wellbeing, business efficiency and economic competitiveness.”
In an interview with Niagara At Large, Debbie Zimmerman, who was a strong advocate for a single, regional transit system for all of Niagara until she retired from the Region’s council a year ago, said an accessible, single-fair, region-wide transit system is one of a number of significant answers to traffic congestion, climate and to keeping young people in regions like Niagara, and attracting new businesses and jobs.
Creating and building on “transit hubs” is key to growing “complete communities for people of all ages to live and work in, Zimmerman said. “It is time for (Niagara’s) regional government to tell local municipalities to get their act together on transit,” she added.
There is funding for municipalities from senior levels of government to build public transit system, said Zimmerman, but “there needs to be a plan of action from the Region of Niagara for a single-fair, integrated system” in place of the patchwork of local transit systems in place now.
The panel heard a great deal from representatives of agricultural communities across the GGH, said Zimmerman, and a message that came clearly across is that governments have to do something to remove the layers of needless red tape that gets in the way of operating farms.
Rather than simply focusing on saving farmland, she said, the panel’s recommendations place the emphasis on “productive farmland” and the idea that “if you can’t save the farmer, you cannot save the land.”
With that idea in mind, there are a number of references in the report to doing more across the GGH to encourage the purchase of locally grown food, Zimmerman said.
As for expanding the land mass in the protected Greenbelt, the panel did not identify specific areas in the GGH that should be included, she said, but is asking the province to welcome cases put forward by municipalities and others to include areas they believe should be included.
The panel’s report, as voluminous as it is to review, has already received praise from citizens organization advocating for protecting green space and building healthier, more environmentally sustainable communities.
“We are thrilled to see that the Crombie Panel has recommended additional lands be added to the Greenbelt, focusing on vulnerable source water areas,” said Joyce Chau, executive director of EcoSpark, a Toronto-area group in a media release. “Ontarians were loud and clear that the protection of our water and natural systems needed to be elevated in areas beyond the Oak Ridges Moraine and adjoining the Greenbelt.”
“The Panel’s focus on climate change throughout this report is an important acknowledgement of what is possible with strong implementation of these plans,” adds Caroline Schultz, executive director of Ontario Nature in the same release. “As we brace for extreme weather, flooding and droughts associated with climate change the enhancement of our natural systems is key to building resilience.”
“We are urging the government to act quickly to grow the Greenbelt during this review,” reads another statement in the release from Josh Garfinkel, senior campaigner at Earthroots. “Growth pressures are building quickly and we can’t afford to sit idle.”
“We are indebted to David Crombie and members of the Advisory Panel as their advice will surely move us towards a more sustainable future,” says Debbie Crandall, a policy advisor for the Oak Ridges Moraine (STORM) Coalition. “Now is the time for the Province to be bold and make these recommendations a reality to protect our land, water and communities.”
The Oak Ridges Moraine Partnership is a coalition of Earthroots, EcoSpark, Ontario Nature and Save the Oak Ridges Moraine (STORM) Coalition are all members of the Oak Ridges Moraine Partnership, a coalition of groups that has been leading the charge to protect the Oak Ridges Moraine and important source water areas in the Greater Golden Horseshoe for more than 25 years.
Ted McMeeken, the Ontario government’s Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, released the following statement on the panel’s report this December 8th;
“I’d like to thank Mr. Crombie and the other members of the advisory panel for their hard work on the review, which supports the government’s goal of encouraging healthy, livable and prosperous communities. I look forward to a thorough review of their recommendations.”
To read the executive summary of the advisory panel’s report click on – http://www.mah.gov.on.ca/Page11256.aspx .
To download the full report with a warning that it may take time for your computer to cope with the size of it, you can click on http://www.mah.gov.on.ca/Page11003.aspx
You can read the entire media release prepared by the Oak Ridges Moraine Partnership of citizen groups by clicking on –http://www.ontarionature.org/media/news_template.php?n_code=808
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