BarrieToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected]. Please include your full name, daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following is an open letter from Barrie resident Janet McFarland to Premier Doug Ford and Barrie-Springwater-Oro-Medonte MPP Doug Downey in relation to Bill 23.
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I am writing to register multiple complaints about Bill 23. This bill is a travesty on so many levels.
It is clearly a bill to support developers at all costs. Developers have rights to appeal when something is unjust to them — to increase their incomes, to ignore environmental protected land, to contravene any existing protections to the Greenbelt, to avoid conservation authorities. This is wrong.
Partnerships with interested and existing groups — conservation groups, Greenbelt interests, water protection groups — are stripped of any appeal rights when this bill becomes law. They are not at the table to weigh in on our behalf.
On the other hand, regular citizens do not have these rights due to Bill 23. Their rights will be removed for "progress." Blind trust of the current provincial government is expected, it seems. I do not believe in this blind trust. It is an old way of being in the modern world. It does not work to empower individuals in a society — rather disempowers the individual and interest groups they are involved in. It does not allow diverse opinion, only the government’s opinion.
Community and small city/town governments have plans to work out housing issues within their communities. Some are respecting farmers and other protected land in their areas. This bill will eclipse multiple rights by removing decision-making at a grassroots level. Thus, the common citizen’s input is not important under this Bill 23.
There is no democracy at play within this top-down model.
Global warming and a pandemic have taught us that we need greenspace to survive, to be healthy. We need to work in inclusive groups for the world we want to live in. Building bridges is a good thing.
We need food from our farmland. Farmers' input matters. We need wetlands and protected areas for the climate and flood management they offer, let alone protection of life of so many species. All life is important. Many speak and stand to protect these voiceless ones.
We need checks and balances in our governments, even in a majority situation. This would be respectful and responsible leadership. Taking out any objections or points of view is not responsible. It is repressive.
I urge this government to rethink their approach and priorities and pull back on this Bill 23. I urge this government to respond respectfully/inclusively to these many issues. These issues are more complex than money in pockets, even numbers of homes. Creativity to try solutions comes from holding spaces where new ideas are welcome. The handling of these issues creates the world we all want to live in.
I am a mother, a grandmother, a health-care worker, a greenspace lover of forest and water. I want the celebration of a healthy balanced environment to be available to generations ahead. It is possible I believe when think tanks and decisions are collaborative and all players are equally welcome at the table.
I trust you will voice my concerns to the Ontario government caucus and support halting this Bill 23 as it exists now.
Janet McFarland
Barrie
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