Dear Editor:
On Dec. 21 Premier Doug Ford firmed up his plan to remove 7,400 acres of natural-heritage area and farmland from Ontario’s Greenbelt and replace most of it with already development-protected farmland in Erin. He will replace the rest with urban river valleys, which are also already protected. Talk about smoke and mirrors.
Statistics Canada reports that between 2016 and 2021, Ontario lost 583,000 acres of farmland, most of it to development. Over those five years, this equates to 319 acres of farmland lost in Ontario every day.
With 11 million acres of farmland remaining, at this rate, in 25 years a quarter of our remaining farmland will be gone. In 100 years there will be none left. A child born today could witness the loss of all of Ontario’s farmland.
The reality is that we may be the last generation to have the chance to make the right choices.
But here’s the thing: in February 2022, the Report of the Ontario Housing Affordability Task Force advised Ford, “Most of the [housing] solution must come from densification. Greenbelts and other environmentally sensitive areas must be protected. Farms provide food and food security.”
Aside from ensuring a supply of food grown in Ontario, farmland protects wildlife habitats, absorbs rainwater, reduces floods, recharges our groundwater aquifers, and stores carbon.
Ford didn’t listen to his advisors and experts on this. So it’s up to us to overcome public apathy and phone or email Ford and tell him to keep his election promise not to touch the Greenbelt, to stop his pro-sprawl plan and solve the housing problem in other ways.
Jan Beveridge,
Elora