'It makes me feel that the public is being deceived': Residents protest Greenbelt lands being turned into housing

'Failing to act would only worsen the housing supply and affordability crisis,' provincial government says

Yorkregion.com
Aug. 22, 2023
Lisa Queen

As drivers honked their support for residents protesting the provincial government’s move to remove environmental lands from the Greenbelt for housing, David Stutt held up a sign reading “Ford liar liar” with a picture of pants on fire.

“He (Premier Doug Ford) lied to us,” Stutt said at the Aug. 19 protest on Yonge Street between Mulock Drive and Savage Road adjacent to the plaza with Newmarket-Aurora MPP Dawn Gallagher Murphy’s office.

“He said (before the 2018 election) he was going to protect the Greenbelt and then he reneged on that promise and we’ve seen what happened with the developers. It’s a shame. An absolute shame. He said, ‘The people have spoken, I’m not going to touch the Greenbelt.’ Then he turns around and does a flip like that and it’s just for greed, it’s just for money.”

The government is under increasing fire for removing 15 parcels of land, including at Bathurst Street and Miller’s Sideroad in King Township on Newmarket’s western border, from the Greenbelt as part of Queen’s Park’s push to build 1.5 million homes over the next decade.

This month, provincial auditor general, Bonnie Lysyk, released a report saying developers could make $8.28 billion developing the 7,400 acres of land.

She also said the Greenbelt lands are not needed for development because there is other land available.

While Ford has said the process to take the lands out of the Greenbelt “should have been better,” he pledged to move forward with development.

In a newsletter emailed to constituents Aug. 11, Gallagher Murphy sent out the government’s position.

“Last year alone, our province grew by more than 500,000 new residents. That’s more newcomers than Texas and Florida, the fastest-growing states in America, both of which are roughly double the size of Ontario’s total population,” it said.

“Failing to act would only worsen the housing supply and affordability crisis, particularly for young families and newcomers who will see the dream of home ownership slip further away.”

But with experts saying the Greenbelt isn’t needed for housing, protesters believe the government isn’t being forthcoming.

“It makes me feel that the public is being deceived,” said organizer Melanie Duckett-Wilson, who is also opposed to other provincial initiatives such as the Bradford Bypass and Hwy. 413.

“He doesn’t really have the best interests of Ontarians in mind. He has the interests of a very select few in mind. I also question what else don’t we know and haven’t been told.”

The protest is indicative of growing opposition to Ford’s position on the Greenbelt, Duckett-Wilson said.

“This reflects that people aren’t happy across politics, Even Conservatives I’ve had say to me, that voted Conservative, that this is not on,” she said.

Newmarket resident Gloria Reszler, a founding member of Save the Oak Ridges Moraine (STORM) who has spent the last 35 years helping to create the Rouge National Urban Park, said government is looking to pave over environmentally sensitive lands and prime farmland.

“We’re speaking our minds. We’re the small little guys and gals speaking up against the power of money,” she said.