A Georgian Bluffs activist is hoping backlash will force the Ontario government to backtrack on the Omnibus Bill 185.
Danuta Valleau said Bill 185, "the Cutting Red Tape to Build More Homes Act” and the changes to the Provincial Planning Statement favour developers at the expense of an educated wisely planned solution.
The housing bill passed its third and final reading at Queen’s Park Wednesday and is set to become law before the end of the week.
Valleau predicted the bill will pose a serious threat to Ontario’s farmland, wetlands, and dwindling wildlife habitats
"Years ago, they estimated that farmland is disappearing at 319 acres daily, which is about the size of a family farm. I think that's probably much more now," she stressed. "Because even in our area, we see farmland disappearing and also inaccessible for people, for young families, to buy a farm and buy the land and actually start their own farm. So, the agricultural community is, I would say, on brink of crisis."
According to the Ontario Farmland Trust, between 2016 and 2021, Ontario witnessed the disappearance of 582,392 acres of farmland across the province.
Valleau pointed out the latest updates remove the requirement that cities must ensure enough housing for half the expected population growth "within existing neighbourhoods and built up areas", and instead allows for unchecked urban sprawl.
"Urban sprawl is something that that is a concern, because then it also means people need cars. It sort of expands out like a puddle. You do one thing and then there's more infrastructure that's needed," said Valleau. "There's no public transport to service that area. These are not affordable houses."
She claims the bill will enable land speculators to demand urban boundary expansions without evidence of need.
"If what we need is affordable housing, it needs to happen in areas where there is public transit, where there are ways to to get around and and to live economically." Valleau added.
She said the bill also will also see developers destroying valuable assets that already exist to help address greenhouse gases.
"Trees that take the carbon out of the air, the carbon sinks that are in wetlands, the air we breathe, which is the oxygen released by by trees, which also stabilize the ground and prevents things like floods from happening in flood prone areas," she explained. "What it's taking away. What is being destroyed by by putting houses on it. And certainly in our area, we've been seeing a lot of houses going up. They level the ground. They take all the trees away. They remove the topsoil, they sell the topsoil to nurseries and they build houses and put them on it. And this is happening in any town around here that has a water water tank, and services available."
Valleau explained the omnibus bill amends 15 pieces of legislation, including moving planning and approvals to lower tier municipalities.
"Municipalities don't have that planning expertise. They have historically not taken on that role. They're certainly involved in it, but for the individual municipalities, without the regional outlook, they're being approached by developers wanting to use certain areas of land, it is going to certainly affect overall how that pattern evolves and what happens to the land."
Valleau is member of the Georgian Bluffs Climate Action Team. She and her partner Michael McLuhan have written to MPP Rick Byers about the issue, and are setting up a meeting to talk further.
She added the bill removes Ontario Land Tribunal oversight of municipal decisions that agree to expand their settlement boundaries, and removes limitations such as housing for minimum of 50 people per hectare, down from 80.
"In addition, the residents who live around an area for potential development will lose their right to appeal zoning decisions," she continued. "The updates to the Provincial Planning Statement (2020) propose a new Ministers Zoning Order (MZO) framework that falls short of the Association of Ontario Municipalities (AMO) recommendations that MZOs be used only in collaboration with municipalities, and only in situations of great urgency."
Valleau hopes if enough people speak out, the province will revoke the plan, as it did with the Greenbelt legislation.
