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Groups push for greenbelt expansion Groups push for greenbelt expansion Originally appeared on "brantfordexpositor.ca" By MICHAEL-ALLAN MARION March 10, 2010 A push to get the Dalton McGuinty government to approve a major expansion of the greenbelt westward through Brant County and in other directions in southern Ontario is gaining fresh energy with the entry of new groups and controversial development activities. For much of the past two years, a collection of groups has been advocating, either independently or in concert as the emerging Greenbelt Alliance, for expansions of the greenbelt area's original 1.8-million acre territory around the Greater Golden Horseshoe. They want the protective environmental and agricultural zone to grow westward into Brant, northward through Guelph, the Town of Oakville, Markham and Simcoe County, and eastward to Prince Edward County. Their main aim is to thwart development pressures that have jumped the established greenbelt lines and moved into new hitherto small, rural communities. In Brant, groups such as Sustainable Brant and area members of the Greenbelt Alliance have been pushing for the county to be included, after watching developers and land bankers gobble up thousands of acres of farmland and pressure county council into developing spots just beyond the city of Brantford's boundaries. Sustainable Brant presented a petition with more than 600 signatures to county council about six months ago, calling for an expansion to protect farmland and the integrity of the Galt-Paris Moraine from development. The group is concerned about the prospect of subdivisions and industrial parks arising on farmland in the Cainsville area and spots between Paris and St. George. The strength of their message has been curbed somewhat by the Brant County Federation of Agriculture and the Ontario Federation of Agriculture. They have been advising caution in the face of contradictory information about the impact the current Greenbelt legislation has been having on different types of farming within its existing territory. The OFA has asked for a moratorium on adding territory until a 10-year review can be done on the legislation's performance since the Greenbelt Act was passed in 2005. It says more up-to-date information is needed for a proper assessment. "Setting aside land to protect agriculture is only one spoke in a many faceted wheel of considerations," she said. "There were good reasons to set up the greenbelt, but let's see how it plays out in reality. We need more information over a longer period of time to be able to understand trends." The spread of preliminary information about the legislation's perceived effects has aided proponents and opponents alike. A University of Guelph study has found that livestock producers do not appear to have gained any comfort from the Greenbelt's embrace. Using numbers that compare figures in the Greenbelt area and provincewide, it says the number of dairy farms decreased by 28 % in the area of the greenbelt, but only 23 % across Ontario. The number of beef operations dropped by 24 % in the so-called protected area, but only 13 per cent province-wide. Hog operations dropped by 27 % in the Greenbelt, while only 11 % generally. Critics point out that most of the numbers come from 2006 census results, which were using trends already in effect between 2001 and 2006, when the legislation was in existence for barely a year. "We need to look at the numbers from the next census," Vos said. "In fairness, we need to see figures from a period when the greenbelt was in existence the whole time, and compare them with the earlier numbers to get a better picture." Another factor to consider, she said, is that the dairy and hog operations were not going through a contraction during some of the study's period, so much as a consolidation trend, where the number of operations was shrinking but the average size and volume of production either remained the same or grew slightly. "That has to be examined more." Ella Haley of Sustainable Brant says the moratorium would place too long a delay for much-needed action to be brought to bear. Developments elsewhere in the Greater Golden Horseshoe are bringing Greenbelt expansion demands. Environmental Defence, a national non-profit group, has weighed in on the pro-expansion side with its call to curb residential pressures on rural areas and stop the installation or expansion of quarries. Environmental Defence is buttressing the battle lines of groups and the city of Hamilton against the Flamborough Quarry that St Marys Cement wants to install on a parcel of farmland northeast of Carlisle, and has joined those against the proposed Nelson Quarry on the Mount Nemo Plateau north of Oakville. "Until such time as Ontario reconciles its priorities between the protection of natural heritage features and source of water and the extraction of aggregates, and until the province modernizes its aggregates laws and policies, there should be no new quarries, or quarry expansions," Environmental Defence says in a position statement.
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