“After being forced to walk back his Greenbelt plan, Ford continues to seek out new ways to impose expensive sprawl development where it doesn’t belong in communities that don’t want it”.
From the Green Party of Ontario
Posted May 16th, 2024 on Niagara At Large
Every day, Ontario loses 319 acres of farmland to urban sprawl and other uses.
With less than five percent of the province classified as prime agricultural land, you’d think that losing the equivalent of 365 family farms a year would be cause for alarm.
You’d think that your provincial government would be taking urgent action to protect the farmland we have left.
But you’d be wrong. In Doug Ford’s Ontario, the bulldozer rules as our $10 billion farm sector is sacrificed to serve the interests of a few well-connected developers.
Why else would Ford and his ministers fight tooth and nail to defend the 7,400 acre Greenbelt land grab – before finally admitting defeat in the face of overwhelming public opposition.
Why else would they be so determined to plough ahead with two costly and unnecessary super-sprawl highway projects that will line the pockets of their developer friends:
- – The $10 billion Highway 413 will cut through over 2,000 acres of Ontario’s best farmland, destroy 75 wetlands, pave over 400 acres of the Greenbelt, harm a range of endangered and at-risk species and create 17.4 million tonnes of carbon pollution by 2050.
- – The Bradford Bypass will cut through 42 acres of the Holland Marsh, some of the most fertile farmland in North America, destroy 96 acres of wildlife habitat and erase 25 acres of provincially significant wetlands.
Now farmers in Waterloo region are alarmed about the government’s plan to expropriate 770 acres of prime farmland near the township of Wilmot to make it “shovel-ready” for some yet-to-be-decided development.
Worse yet, Doug Ford says this exercise will be being repeated at many other sites in Ontario.
This problem is far bigger than the two highways and the 770 acres in Wilmot. After being forced to walk back his Greenbelt plan, Ford continues to seek out new ways to impose expensive sprawl development where it doesn’t belong in communities that don’t want it.
[Join the call to defend our farmland](https://secure.gpo.ca/civicrm/mailing/url?u=199770&qid=99236403)
We’re calling on Premier Ford to commit to protecting prime farmland. That means cancelling Highway 413 and the Bradford Bypass, eliminating the incentive for sprawl housing with policies that promote gentle density in cities and towns, and finding more suitable sites for industrial development.
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