The placards may have featured different sayings, but the message to the Doug Ford government was clear: ‘Keep your hands off our land’.
Close to 50 area residents turned up Friday afternoon in front of the Midland Public Library (where Simcoe North MPP Jill Dunlop maintains a constituency office on Wednesdays) to protest the reigning provincial Conservatives’ Bill 23 and its controversial plan for the Greenbelt.
Gaia Seagram worries the government’s building plan will dramatically hurt the province's environment and could eventually affect a provincially significant wetland near her Thunder Beach home.
“This would take away that protection,” she says of the wetland that's home to rare species like the red-headed woodpecker and leopard frogs. “Also, the Greenbelt should be protected.”
Bill 23, the More Homes Built Faster Act, 2022, received royal ascent on Monday to the criticism of many. While its intent was to spur housing and affordable housing development, the freezing and exemption of development charges as well as concerns regarding environment and conservation issues have caused citizen groups across the province to raise their voice in opposition.
Last month, the provincial government announced it wants to remove land from 15 different areas of the Greenbelt, while adding acres elsewhere so that 50,000 homes can be built -- despite previous promises it wouldn't touch the Greenbelt.
Linda Chernecki travelled from Wasage Beach for Friday’s protest.”
“I’ve been following this thing forever,” says Chernecki, who was part of the movement to protect Site 41.
“I can’t stand by with what he (Ford) is going to be doing. Everything with this is wrong, we’re going in the absolute wrong direction.”
Bonnie Pauzé and her husband farm a piece of land not far from French’s Hill, which has been at the centre of an ongoing dispute about protecting the 'world’s purest water' from nearby aggregate companies.
“Our farm has been impacted by aggregates,” Pauzé said, noting the companies that use groundwater to wash tonnes of gravel on a daily basis have turned what was once crystal clear water into something resembling a “milkshake.”
And while the protest wasn’t held directly to protest aggregate washing or the region’s water supply, Pauzé has a message about the province’s plan to create thousands of new houses under Bill 23.
“If they build more houses, they’re going to need more aggregate, they’re going to need more resources,” she says, noting that will affect not only her farm’s water supply, but also greenspaces and farmland the province’s population relies on to ensure clean air, natural spaces and food.
“They should be building up, not out. And we’re just a spoke in the big wheel. The ecology, everybody’s going to be impacted. We need to think about the future and all those families that need to be fed.”
Pauzé said that since COVID hit, environmental groups have been splintered. These latest salvos from the province, however, have helped unite them again.
“The country’s precious and we need to protect it,” Pauzé said. “Greed is not a good thing.”
Despite speaking against developing Greenbelt lands in 2018, Dunlop voted in favour of Bill 23 earlier this week.
"Everyone in Ontario should be able to find a home that is right for them, but too many people are struggling with the rising cost of living and with finding housing that meets their family’s needs. Ontario needs more housing, and we need it now," Dunlop told MidlandToday in a statement. "Bill 23 ... takes bold action to advance our plan to address the housing crisis by building 1.5 million homes over the next 10 years."
"It would help cities, towns and rural communities grow with a mix of ownership and rental housing types that meet the needs of all Ontarians – from single family homes to townhomes and mid-rise apartments."
Though asked, Dunlop did not state why her position on developing Greenbelt lands has changed since 2018.
Organizers of Friday's rally, which featured similar protests in Coldwater and Orillia, says Dunlop campaigned in 2018 for protecting the Greenbelt and she proudly stood up to Doug Ford to back down on his plan to open it for development.
When her rival Gerry Marshall’s time came to question Dunlop, he brought up Ford’s previous plan to open up parts of Ontario’s Greenbelt to development. Marshall wanted to know how the PCs would protect green space in Simcoe County.
Ford abandoned that plan, Dunlop replied.
“Myself and other candidates spoke up in favour of not touching that land,” she said. “Yes, (Ford) did change his mind and I don’t see anything wrong with that.”
(Full article here, or see this video for a portion of the debate, where Dunlop goes on about how important our environment/farmland is).
