Proposed provincial law threatens York Region's environment, critics warn

'One of most-ill-conceived and short-sighted pieces of legislation'

Yorkregion.com
December 11, 2018
Lisa Queen

Critics warn that York Region’s environment could be at risk under proposed provincial legislation that may fast-track business development on sensitive lands.

“Bill 66 is one of the most ill-conceived and short-sighted pieces of legislation to come out of the provincial government to date,” Sustainable Vaughan director Sony Rai said.

“This legislation encourages municipalities to ignore existing environmental and planning policies including the Greenbelt Act, the Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Act, the Clean Water Act and the Great Lakes Protection Act. These acts were all created to protect environmentally-sensitive lands and waterways, and in turn protect the health and well-being of Ontario citizens. To the ruling provincial government, the health and well-being of your communities is simply (seen as) ‘red tape.'”

The proposed Restoring Ontario’s Competitiveness Act would let municipalities obtain provincial permission allowing businesses to bypass several long-standing laws meant to protect the environment.

Provincial approval in the open-for-business zones would only come if the development would create 50 jobs in communities with population of less than 250,000 or 100 jobs in larger municipalities.

Warning the policy would allow developments to proceed without input from residents, Rai warned the Greenbelt, the Oak Ridges Moraine and the headwaters of major watersheds are threatened.

When word that the Greenbelt could be sacrificed to developers during this year’s provincial election, then-York-Simcoe Conservative candidate and now MPP Caroline Mulroney committed to saving the sensitive environmental lands, Jack Gibbons, chair of the North Gwillimbury Forest Alliance, said.

He is urging residents to contact Mulroney, who is Ontario’s attorney general, to keep her promise.

“Ontario does not need to sacrifice the North Gwillimbury Forest and the Greenbelt to create jobs and grow our economy,” he said.

“Nor does it need to sacrifice the Oak Ridges Moraine and Lake Simcoe, also in Ms. Mulroney’s riding, whose protection plans can also be overridden by these special bylaws. There is plenty of land in the Greater Toronto Area that is already zoned for new factories, offices, stores and homes.”

Environmental Defence executive director Tim Gray is also condemning the proposed legislation, calling it a threat to two million acres of farmland, natural areas and water sources.