Keep Your Promise, Doug Ford. Keep Your Hands Off The Greenbelt

“Ford’s legacy of environmental destruction gets worse every day. And once these environmentally sensitive lands are gone, they are gone forever.”

A Statement from Ontario Green Party Mike Schreiner

Posted November 9^th, 2022 on Niagara At Large

Remember when Doug Ford looked straight into the camera  and said this: “THE PEOPLE HAVE SPOKEN – WE WON’T TOUCH THE GREENBELT . . . THAT’S IT.”

So do I – but that was then (in the year 2018 when he was first running for premier.)

Late last week, while everyone was watching Ford and Lecce stumble into a disastrous standoff with education workers, the government quietly announced its PLAN TO OPEN UP 7,400 ACRES OF PROTECTED GREENBELT LAND TO DEVELOPERS.This is not just another of Doug Ford’s broken promises. THIS IS ENVIRONMENTAL VANDALISM ON A MASSIVE SCALE AND IT MUST NOT STAND!

It will destroy more precious farmland (have you noticed food prices lately?) while putting people and their property at risk as the frequency and severity of extreme weather events escalates.

And it’s based on yet another Ford falsehood: that we have to choose between protecting the environment we love and building the housing we desperately need. _We simply don’t._

Ford’s pro-sprawl agenda is an environmental and economic disaster. We need to build homes where people want to live – near transit and shops, where they can work and play without the expensive, soul-crushing commutes that steal their time with loved ones.

 

But Doug Ford and his developer friends don’t care about that. They don’t care about the Greenbelt or the environment. They don’t care that we are facing a climate crisis.

Behind the scenes, this government has been chipping away at Greenbelt protections for years by giving the go-ahead to destructive Greenbelt developments like Highway 413. 

NOW THEY ARE SAYING IT OUT LOUD: THE GREENBELT IS UP FOR GRABS.

All this just a few days after they tabled Bill 23, which guts Conservation Authorities’ powers and the province’s wetland protection system. 

Ford’s legacy of environmental destruction gets worse every day. And once these environmentally sensitive lands are gone, they are gone forever. 

Please join us in demanding that Doug Ford keep his hands off the Greenbelt [3], end expensive sprawl and permanently protect prime farmland, watersheds, and green space for present and future generations.

1. Sincerely, MIKE SCHREINER Leader, Ontario Greens

PS: Make sure you save the date for the LOCAL DAY OF ACTION TO STOP HIGHWAY 413

WHEN: Sunday, November 26 – rain or shine!

WHERE: Your City, Your Town, Your Neighbourhood

Join fellow Greens and supporters as they head out into their communities across Ontario to collect signatures and engage their neighbours in the campaign to stop Ford’s $10 billion environmental catastrophe.

Watch Ontario’s Green Party Leader speak about this issue recently in the provincial legislature –

For more from the Green Party of Ontario, click on – https://gpo.ca/ 

To read a recent News Release from Ontario’s Green Party on this topic, click on – Ford’s scapegoating newcomers for Greenbelt development a new low (gpo.ca)

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“A Politician Thinks Of The Next Election. A Leader Thinks Of The Next Generation.” – Bernie Sanders