York mayors, councillors, candidates sign Greenbelt pledge

Yorkregion.com
Oct. 17, 2014
By Kim Zarzour

Sixty candidates in the upcoming municipal election - including 18 from York Region, Aurora Mayor Geoff Dawe among them - have signed a pledge calling for a strong protected Greenbelt.

The Greenbelt is the world’s largest permanently protected area of greenspace, farmland, forests, wetlands and watersheds, created by provincial legislation in 2005, and located on almost two million acres in Canada’s most populated and fasted growing area around Toronto.

It works in conjunction with the Niagara Escarpment Plan and the Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Plan to provide protection of natural heritage systems, water resources and farmland.

Recent polls by Environics Research Group show 93 per cent of Ontarians support the Greenbelt and three-quarters of Ontarians feel it is very important to continue to grow Ontario’s Greenbelt.

The Municipal Leaders for the Greenbelt, a group of elected mayors and councillors, is urging candidates to sign their pledge to stand up for the Greenbelt in advance of the policy review set for 2015.

Started by three city councillors - Erin Shapero in Markham, Glenn De Baeremaeker in Toronto and Allan Elgar in Oakville - the group wants the province to take steps to make the Greenbelt “bigger, better, and bolder” by expanding it by one million acres; creating Ontario’s first foodbelt consisting of 200,000 acres for farming; and reducing red tape for municipalities that want to grow the Greenbelt.

To learn more, visit Greenbelt.ca or http://leaders-greenbelt.squarespace.com.