“The (Ford) Government’s two recent reversals, canceling Greenbelt removals and now reversing forced boundary expansions, are onlythe first two steps on a long (to ending Ford’s drive to forever smother more of our natural heritage lands with urban sprawl).”
A Statement by Phil Pothen, Ontario Environment Program Manager for the citizens group Environmental Defence
Toronto, Ontario – The provincial government will take another modest step to try to end its sprawl and land speculation scandal if it follows through on For Housing Minister Paul Calandra’s promise (this October 23rd) to reverse the reduced density targets and forced boundary expansions that it imposed on Hamilton, Halton, Ottawa, Waterloo and other Ontario municipality)es (including Niagara.
Reversing forced boundary expansions and the Ontario Government’s loosening of Official Plan intensification targets will make it easier for municipalities to deliver the compact, low-cost family housing in existing neighborhoods that is required to fix the housing shortage.
However, we are concerned that Minister Calandra appears to be continuing to frame the forced boundary expansion scandal as one of “process.”
The heart of the scandal is that the government insisted on extending settlement boundaries in regions where it knew expansion was unnecessary and would actually make it harder to increase housing production and fix the housing shortage.
Municipal authorities and the Provincial government knew there was already so much farmland and wildlife habitat designated for development within settlement boundaries before 2022 (more than 350 km2 in the GTHA alone) that sprawling even further would require that construction happen at inefficient and car-dependent low densities.
The Government would not have had to resort to inappropriate interventions in the process if it weren’t for the absence of any appropriate, evidence-based justification for these expansions.
The Ontario Government’s two recent reversals, canceling Greenbelt removals and now reversing forced boundary expansions, are only the first two steps on a long road. These two steps simply reverse actions taken as a part of a much larger corrupt and counterproductive push for sprawl that would worsen Ontario’s housing shortage.
The government actions that form this scandal include:
- “Sprawl MZOs” that have forced sprawl outside of existing towns city boundaries
- The reduction of Growth Plan housing and job density requirements – and a plan to remove them altogether- at a time when higher densities are the only way to solve the housing shortage
- A plan to let agricultural landlords anywhere in Ontario evict farmers and convert a farm into three McMansion estates
- Laws that have weakened Conservation Authorities, endangered species protection, and floodplain and wetland protections; forced urban boundary expansions in Hamilton, Halton, Waterloo and elsewhere aimed at increasing the amount of farms, forests and wetlands lost to sprawl by more than 100 km2 within the Golden Horseshoe alone
- The dismantling of regional land use planning,
- Pushing the dangerous Highway 413 and Bradford by-Pass highway schemes
Unless the dismantling of regional planning and recent sprawl-inducing changes to the Provincial Policy Statement and the Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe are reversed, and unless plans to repeal the Growth Plan altogether are abandoned, there’s a very real risk that these boundary expansions themselves may re-emerge in a new form.
Just as with the Greenbelt removals and forced boundary expansions, all of these provincial actions involve more than just sacrificing the environment.
They also divert scarce construction capacity and public resources away from essential low-cost housing in existing neighborhoods in order to subsidize the environmentally destructive sprawl schemes of the government’s “friends”. In the case of Highway 413, those public resources consist of more than $10 billion of taxpayer money and a wide swathe of the Greenbelt itself.
The scandal won’t be over until Highway 413 and all the government’s other sprawl initiatives have been abandoned and reversed.
ABOUT ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENCE (environmentaldefence.ca): Environmental Defence is a leading Canadian advocacy organization that works with government, industry and individuals to defend clean water, a safe climate and healthy communities.
Here is the Ford government’s statement on this latest promise to pull back on forced urban boundary expansions across the province –
Ontario Winding Back Changes to Official Plans
October 23rd, 2023
A Statement from the Ontario Ministry of Muncipal Affairs and Housing
Paul Calandra, Doug Ford’s latest Housing Minister, works to sweep the Greenbelt land swaps and related scandals under the rug
TORONTO — Today (this October 23rd), Paul Calandra, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, released the following statement:
“Since becoming Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, I have made it a priority to review past decisions, including minister’s zoning orders and official plans, to ensure that they support our goal of building at least 1.5 million homes in a manner that maintains and reinforces public trust.
In reviewing how decisions were made regarding official plans, it is now clear that they failed to meet this test. In response, as soon as I am able, I will be introducing legislation that would reverse the official plan decisions for Barrie, Belleville, Guelph, Hamilton, Ottawa and the City of Peterborough, the Regional Municipalities of Halton, Niagara, Peel, Waterloo and York, as well as Wellington County.
This legislation would wind back provincial changes to official plans and official plan amendments, except in circumstances where construction has begun or where doing so would contravene existing provincial legislation and regulation. This includes winding back changes to urban boundaries.
To ensure that the reset plans match our shared ambitions to build more homes, especially now that municipalities have made their housing pledges, we will be asking impacted municipalities to submit changes and updates to those plans to ministry staff within 45 days of today, including information on projects that are already underway.
In recognition of the costs incurred by municipalities arising out of this decision, the province will work with impacted municipalities to assist with related planning and staffing costs.”
Read a related CBC story by clicking on the following link – https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/official-plan-reversal-legislation-1.7004947
NIAGARA AT LARGE Encourages You To Join The Conversation By Sharing Your Views On This Post In The Space Following The Bernie Sanders Quote Below.
“A Politician Thinks Of The Next Election. A Leader Thinks Of The Next Generation.” – Bernie Sanders
Niagara At Large 