On Monday 6/23 I participated in The Municipal Leaders for the Greenbelt (MLGB) 2014 Summit. I renewed my pledge to protect the Greenbelt’s 1.8 million acres which includes areas protected by the Greenbelt Plan, the Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Plan (ORMCP) and the Niagara Escarpment Plan. Renewal of this commitment by candidates in the 2014 municipal election is timely as all three conservation plans are up for review in 2015.

Put very simply these plans are the means to:

• stop sprawl
• protect farm land so that food is grown locally,
• connect natural heritage systems to achieve clean water through river systems,
• protect the source of freshwater for hundreds of thousands people and
• provide green space for recreation and renewing connections to nature (i.e. reduce the nature deficit)

In addition to pledging the Greenbelt, the MLGB has identified 3 bold modifications to the Plans which are totally consistent with the above identified objectives:

• Add one million acres to the GB so that it goes north to Georgian Bay.
• Create Ontario’s 1st Food Belt by converting the current “white belt” to a Food Belt; as this white belt is within the GTA it is valuable to ensure acreage dedicated to growing our food.
• Simplify process for those municipalaties who wish to add more land to GB within their boundaries.

Some might argue that the first priority is to deal with the  fundamental issue:   establish processes and resources to monitor impact of these land use planning policies and legislation. Although the legislation calls for such there has been little put in place. In the case of the ORMCP, Monitoring The Moraine, a collaborative effort by Ecospark and Save The Oak Ridges Moraine (STORM), did produce a status report covering compliance, infrastructure and community concerns in 2012; but as their funding was not renewed no updates have been produced.

If one says that it can’t be bigger, the 3 conservation plans are not perfect.  Improving them is important as the objectives of the plans are so important to the quality of our lives and more importantly the lives of  our grandchildren. Very importantly, I want to see amendments which will enhance the ability for farmers and other stewards of the land to operate their businesses successfully across the Greenbelt. The greatest protection for the Greenbelt is every land owner operating as a steward of the land and seeing the brightest future as one including their lands as productive agricultural acreage or as landscape for the rivers to flow through or as a host for wetlands.