[All] Opening Up Ontario For Business...

[Kevin Thomason]

Hi GREN folks,

You might have heard about Bill 66 that was released today by Doug Ford’s Provincial Government which plans to allow municipalities to override the Greenbelt Act, the Planning Act, the Clean Water Act, the Great Lakes Protection Act, the Oak Ridges Moraine Act, the Lake Simcoe Act, the Places to Grow Act, and many other important protections without even a public meeting under the guise of “Opening Ontario for Business”.

Needless to say this is extremely disturbing and the consequences could be very far-reaching.  

Below is an e-mail from the Ontario Greenbelt Alliance of which GREN is a member with further information and actions you can take to speak up and provide feedback to the Ford government.

I’ve already had reporters reaching out and we will have to see how things unfold.  Please share any information and we will see what can be done to try to guide things accordingly to ensure that the environment and natural resources that we all depend on in Ontario are protected to the fullest extent possible.

Thanks,
Kevin.

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Good Afternoon OGA members, 

It is a challenging time for Greenbelt supporters.  Today the government of Ontario introduced what they call an economic development tool, an open for business planning bylaw (regulation) which would exempt major economic development projects, major employment uses from planning and environmental laws. 

MMAH/Planning Act changes in Bill 66 <https://www.ola.org/en/legislative-business/bills/parliament-42/session-1/bill-66>, Restoring Ontario's Competitiveness Act allows municipalities, with ministerial approval, to pass “Open For Business” bylaws that allow municipalities to bypass various planning statutes, including the Greenbelt Act, which Ford had promised to leave intact. Schedule 10 of the Bill amends the Planning Act, section 34.1 to allow municipalities to pass open for business planning by-laws. 



The “Open for Business” zoning bylaw would be enacted by a municipality. Provisions in the legislation exempt municipalities to conform to aspects of the Planning Act, Great Lakes Protection Act, Clean Water Act, Greenbelt Act, Oak Ridges Moraine Act, Lake Simcoe Protection Act, the Places to Grow Act among others. Perhaps most disturbing is the provision that allows a project to proceed without a public meeting. Once the municipality has the Minister's approval they can move ahead. 



Breaking the promise not to open up the Greenbelt shows a disrespect to voters. It also puts the health of farmers and rural landowners at risk. Just this week the Neptis Foundation released a report calling for a regional vision for the GGH. The health of our region depends on valuing our farms, forests, clean water sources and nature. 



Submissions on the regulation are to be made by January 20th and can be sent to the Environmental Registry of Ontario, https://ero.ontario.ca/notice/013-4239 <https://ero.ontario.ca/notice/013-4239>

We will be developing a submission in response to this legislation which will be passing along for your use and endorsement. In the coming weeks we will be in contact with a date for an all member OGA meeting. 



Please use social media, letter to the editor, etc.  to let people in your community and network know about this promise about to be broken by the Ford government. 



Yours in continued Greenbelt Protection, 


Susan Lloyd Swail, MES Pl. RPP
Senior Manager, Livable Communities


116 Spadina Avenue, Suite 300, Toronto, ON, M5V 2K6 | 416-323-9521, ext. 224
Twitter: @envirodefence <http://twitter.com/envirodefence> | Facebook: EnvironmentalDefenceCanada <http://facebook.com/EnvironmentalDefenceCanada>
Defending clean water, a safe climate and healthy communities. 
Check out our new website: EnvironmentalDefence.ca <http://environmentaldefence.ca/>


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Kevin Thomason

1115 Cedar Grove Road
Waterloo, Ontario Canada  N2J 3Z4

Phone: (519) 888-0519
Mobile Phone/WhatsApp: (519) 240-1648
Twitter: @kthomason
E-mail: kevinthomason at mac.com

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