Environmentalists and critics are accusing Premier Doug Ford of breaking a promise to protect the two-million-acre Greenbelt from development with changes they say endanger wildlife and drinking water, setting Ontario’s environmental protections back 40 years.

The Progressive Conservative government’s proposed changes to the planning act will undermine the province’s anti-sprawl smart growth plan, the Greenbelt Act, the Great Lakes and Lake Simcoe Protection acts and the Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Act, said Environmental Defence executive director Tim Gray.

The changes were announced Thursday as part of Bill 66, the Restoring Ontario’s Competitiveness Act.

It would allow municipalities to obtain provincial approval to use a new open-for-business zoning bylaw that would bypass some of the existing development requirements. The bylaw would only be available if the municipality could prove a development would create 50 jobs for places with populations under 250,000 or 100 jobs in larger municipalities. Of eight Ontario municipalities with more than 250,000 people, five are in the Toronto region.

“The aim is to have all provincial approvals in place within one year so qualifying businesses can begin construction,” said an emailed statement from a spokesperson of Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Steve Clark.

Conditions would remain on the building, material and other design elements of the employment projects but municipalities would not be required to provide advance notice of the bylaw’s adoption.

Read more:

New bill aims to reduce red tape for business, says Ford government

Opinion | Edward Keenan: Ontario Tories’ bill to supposedly cut red tape will put lives at risk

Ontario government’s proposed changes reduces employers’ obligation to pay overtime, critics say

The new tool is the kind of opening environmentalists have feared since Doug Ford was caught on video during the election campaign telling developers he would open up the Greenbelt if he became premier. He walked back the remarks after the video was released.

“There is no longer any rational approach to land designation so all areas that we’ve carefully considered being worthy of protection no longer have that protection. Anyone with a property just has to convince Queen’s Park to give them an exemption and (that’s) all it (needs) to go forward for development,” Gray said.

While the bill is driven by job creation, retail and residential components can be part of the projects which qualify for the bylaw’s use, he said.

Oakville Mayor Rob Burton said his town’s officials were still scrambling Thursday to interpret the bill, but “on the face of it, it looks like the Greenbelt on a case-by-case basis is open for business.”

The integrity of the Greenbelt will, in essence, be in the hands of municipalities who will have the option of apply for the open-for-business bylaw, he said.

Calling it “an interesting reversal,” Burton said councils that would previously be faced with a development application that was once clearly prohibited could now be persuaded to make an exception and use the bylaw to get it.

“I don’t think this premier will be happy until he paves paradise and puts up a parking lot,” said the NDP MPP Catherine Fife (Waterloo).

Ontario Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner, the MPP for Guelph, accused the province of breaking a sacred trust.

“The Greenbelt is not driving up housing prices or the cost of business. Only 20 per cent of already available lands for development have been used,” he said in a press release. Paving farms and wetlands will cost the province billions in flooding from the increasing occurrence of extreme weather, Schreiner said.

Bill 66 has nothing to do with residential development, said Joe Vaccaro of the Ontario Home Builders Association.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Homebuilders have been pushing to reduce regulations that increase costs as project timelines stretch. But that side of the industry is being addressed under the province’s Housing Supply Action Plan, he said.

“They made it very clear they made a commitment to protect the Greenbelt and they are going to continue to look for policies consistent with that commitment,” Vaccaro said.

The industry, he said, is focused on resolving red tape and planning issues: “What can we do in the city limits to create more housing supply,” Vaccaro said.

With files from Robert Benzie

Read more about: