“Changes pushed through (by Ontario’s Ford Government) last month (July, 2020) – in the middle of a pandemic – gut our Environmental Assessment (EA) safeguards and even allow for shovels in the ground before weakened reviews are complete.” – Green Party of Ontario
A Call-Out to All of Us from the Green Party of Ontario
Posted August 20th, 2020 on Niagara At Large
Save Ontario’s Farmland
(Then Ontario conservative Party leader and now Premier) Doug Ford was caught on tape in the run up to the (2018 provincial) election telling developers that he was planning to open the Greenbelt for development.
Intense public pressure forced Ford to backtrack, and he’s been promising not to touch the Greenbelt ever since.
The Greenbelt is important land for growing food, providing habitat for wildlife and protecting us against climate change.
Despite these promises, the Ford government keeps trying to carve this land up. The latest attempt will bring back plans for a 400 series highway that runs right through farmland and greenspace.
The area marked in green, including lands in Niagara from Grimsby and West Lincoln, through to Niagara-on-the-Lake and Niagara Falls, to the shores of the Niagara River, were established as a protected Greenbelt by the former Ontario Liberal government more than a decade ago. Other countries around the world applauded Ontario for making this move to protect these precious growing lands before it was too late. Now this Ford government and representatives of the province’s development and building sector are doing whatever they can to gut the Greenbelt for their own monetary gain. Never mind if there is little left for future generations. – Doug Draper, Niagara At Large
He’s using yet another legislative weapon in his attempt to strip away our environmental rights.
Changes pushed through last month (this past July) – in the middle of a pandemic – gut our Environmental Assessment (EA) safeguards and even allow for shovels in the ground before weakened reviews are complete.
The government is accepting feedback until August 22 on a ‘streamlined’ Environmental Assessment.
This is not ‘streamlining’. It’s railroading.
This highway will literally bulldoze prime farmland and cross two major rivers. All to save less than a minute of travel time.
That’s right. Less than a minute, for over 6 billion dollars in costs to you and me.
Experts agree it’s wrong to go ahead with this unneeded highway.
We need to stand up for our farms, our waterways and the quality of our air as Doug Ford tries yet again to pave paradise and put up a rush hour parking lot.
Please send your comment in (to the Ford Government) before August 22.
For more information on sending a comment, click on on – https://secure.gpo.ca/save-ontario-farmland?source=C20.SES.W
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From the Green Party of Ontario’s Advanced Education and Skills Development Critic, Laura Campbell
A Note from Doug Draper at Niagara At Large –
To watch a Youtube clip, first made public in early 2018, of then Ontario Conservative Party leader and now Premier Doug Ford telling a group of the province’s developers what he would really like to do with what is left of the province’s world-class greenbelt, lick on the screen below.
And as you watch note how enthusiastically these representatives of Ontario’s development industry sector applaud for the idea of destroying more of our precious green lands for “affordable housing” that can and should be built inside the province’s already existing urban boundaries.
Then ask yourself if we haven’t got one of the most backward-thinking development industries in North America, right here in Ontario. And now we have a Premier and a government chomping at the bit to do their bidding.
Here is the video clip –
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