Former Mississauga mayor Hazel McCallion comes out in support of Ford's Greenbelt housing plan
'I have watched the population of the Greater Toronto Area grow in ways that were almost unimaginable, and that growth is about to become even more startling'
Nationalpost.com
Jan. 23, 2023

Hazel McCallion has weighed into the debate over the Greenbelt surrounding the Greater Toronto Area in favour of the Ford government.

McCallion, chairman of the Greenbelt Council, has issued an open letter saying that the decision to build homes on 15 parcels of land is the right one.

Steve Clark, Ontario’s minister of municipal affairs and housing, announced in November that the province would allow development on 15 parcels of land that had been part of the Greenbelt.

The parcels amount to roughly 3,000 hectares, or about 0.3% of the 810,000 hectares in the Greenbelt.

At the same time as this land was being taken out of the Greenbelt, another 3,800 hectares of land was being added in.

The decision has caused plenty of protests from environmental groups and the opposition at Queen’s Park, but McCallion said the government’s decision is a prudent one.

“Over the last half-century, I have watched the population of the Greater Toronto Area grow in ways that were almost unimaginable, and that growth is about to become even more startling and demanding.”

McCallion, who was mayor of Mississauga from 1978 until 2014, said that over the years she has worked with colleagues and adversaries, and, “together, we found ways to accommodate families in homes.” On the current debate over the Greenbelt, she feels the heated argument needs some clarification.

“As chair of the Greenbelt Council, I have a message about the Greenbelt. Ontario’s Greenbelt plays an important role in the
sustainability of our environmental, social and economic fabric. It protects nature, the environment and important foodlands,” McCallion wrote.

“But it was never a perfect ecosystem and there have been changes made to the Greenbelt map, before and since its implementation in 2005. Some of the Greenbelt changes made sense, and some did not.”

The recent changes to the Greenbelt will help with the housing affordability crisis, she said.

“If we are to meet the challenges of the epically growing human population of the GTA and provide truly livable and affordable communities, then we must allow for housing and new communities to be created where it makes sense to do so,” McCallion wrote.

She also writes in her letter that many of the lands the province is allowing to be developed were already serviced with infrastructure. In fact, many of them were serviced before the Greenbelt was created in 2005.

“It is irresponsible and wasteful not to follow good planning principles in conjunction with good environmental and foodland protection,” McCallion said.

“Even during the last formal review of the Greenbelt in 2016, there were clear examples of where boundaries prevented municipalities from making full use of their existing infrastructure, forcing them to build new infrastructure for new homes, creating unnecessary costs and delays.”

While critics of the Ford government’s plan say this land isn’t needed to build affordable homes, McCallion disagreed, saying this will accomplish the goals of building homes people can afford and seeing them built quickly. She also called the changes brave, responsible and necessary, and applauded

Premier Doug Ford for taking steps that may not always be popular

“To stand the test of time, Ontario’s Greenbelt must be responsive to opportunities for the evolving and changing realities,” she wrote. “To have integrity and credibility in the long term, the Greenbelt must be realistic and accountable to the triple bottom line of environmental, economic and social imperatives.

“The most recent changes to the Greenbelt accomplish that.”