Dear Editor:
If MPP Matthew Rae is “listening to local mayors and councils”, “grew up on a farm” and understands “the importance of our agricultural system in Wellington County and Perth County and across southwestern Ontario”, as the parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, and a voting member of the legislature, he should also understand the importance of agricultural systems throughout the province.
Ontario Farmland Trust reports we are losing 319 acres of agricultural land a day to urban development. This is not sustainable. We need to create more agricultural preserves, not destroy the only one we have.
If MPP Rae and the Ford government are listening to municipalities, why did they refuse to meet with them last fall to solve the housing crisis?
And they still refuse.
Municipalities know where the available infrastructure and services are to build housing quickly. They have stated over and over that Greenbelt lands are not needed to solve the problem.
In the Auditor General’s report, she notes:
“The Durham, Hamilton and York chief planners we spoke to said it would be challenging to provide the selected sites with the municipal infrastructure and services needed to support housing development in the near future. For example, Durham’s chief planner estimated it will take as many as 25 years to have full service for housing development on the Duffins Rouge Agricultural Preserve, which accounts for 58 per cent of the land acres removed from the Greenbelt in 2022.”
I don’t believe for a second that the decision was made in only three weeks, and by Minister Clark’s chief of staff alone. Silvio DeGasperis has a long history of trying to develop the Duffins Rouge Agricultural Preserve which was protected with agricultural easements in perpetuity.
Shouldn’t the government be angry that an underling made these decisions, circumvented proper process and embarrassed the entire government putting their integrity and reputations at risk? Wouldn’t they want to undo the wrong? Government is usually slow. The Greenbelt grab was swift, strategic, calculated, and intentional in its execution.
All Conservative MPPs are sticking to the tiresome, false narrative of housing and is an insult to the public’s intelligence. The jig is up and MPP’s need to refuse to play this game any longer. Are they representing the public interest, or private interest?
Whatever political stripe you are, this should make you angry.
Bonnie Littley,
Wellington North
Co-founder of the Rouge Duffins Greenspace Coalition