#City & Town Planning
Target:
Kathleen Wynne, Premier of Ontario, Ted McMeekin, Ontario Minister of Municipal Affairs
Region:
Canada
Website:
www.u-live.ca

The Province of Ontario is currently in the process of reviewing four pieces of legislation passed approximately ten years ago. They are all aimed at the preservation of green lands…forests, recreational land, rivers and streams, eco-systems, and agriculture. These are The Places to Grow Act; The Greenbelt Act; The Niagara Escarpment Act; and The Oak Ridges Moraine Act.

The afore-mentioned laws of the Province of Ontario have laudable goals. However, while protecting specifically defined territories, they have neglected the human aspect. People are important as important as rivers and trees. Given that the review of 2015 is both the first in ten years and the last for ten years, we believe it is imperative that correct decisions be made.

We believe that together, these Acts have created an artificial marketplace within 50 kilometres of the GTA such that almost no supply exists while huge demand has denied people, and families in particular, any reasonable expectation that one day, they might aspire to home ownership. Vancouver and Toronto, some suggest, may be in "bubble environments” where home prices are excessive. While the price point aspect is true, this situation is entirely a function of demand in the face of little to no supply. In the Vancouver area, it’s a physical manifestation of the landscape that is responsible. In Toronto, it’s a matter of government policy. That policy must be relaxed.

Ontarians wish to send a clear and strong message. Stop precluding divergent types of housing from being built in “white belt” residentially zoned lands and stop controlling the Official Plans of our cities and towns to the extent that families may currently look forward only to undesired vertical living, if that.

Please share this petition link widely on social media and by email!!

To:
Kathleen Wynne, Premier of Ontario,
Ted McMeekin, Ontario Minister of Municipal Affairs

We, the undersigned, demand an honest, full, and sincere review of the four Acts constituting “greenbelt” control legislation as opposed to the sham review now being conducted which began with an end result before it ever heard from a single concerned citizen. We insist that people…families…be the prime consideration in decisions affecting land use within 100 kilometres of the GTA.

We believe in a green belt. We support legislative extension of protection to river valley lands within 50 kilometres of the CN Tower and, generally, in an extension to the Greenbelt Act and Oak Ridges Moraine Act protections by approximately 50 additional kilometres, where warranted.

However, we demand that white belt lands be administered in such a way as to accommodate all types of accommodation and construction in order to reflect the requirements and demands of the general population.

We also support a loosening of the controls imposed on cities and towns in the affected areas such that reasonable decisions may be made affecting protected lands within defined greenbelt territories to allow for the construction of all manner of housing such that it may be affordable to a broad cross-section of Ontario families, couples, and individuals. This based on the marketplace existent in 2015 and anticipated for the next 20 years.

Ontario, notably in the GTA and in areas within close proximity, can ill afford to continue to deny families housing that is affordable by creating artificial markets through legislation and, in consequence, failing to address a clear and present need, much less, the requirements foreseen by population growth estimates going forward.

Sincerely, The Undersigned

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The Provide Affordable Living and a Greenbelt that works petition to Kathleen Wynne, Premier of Ontario, Ted McMeekin, Ontario Minister of Municipal Affairs was written by Urban Living In Viable Environments and is in the category City & Town Planning at GoPetition.