People protesting the province’s proposed Bill 23 again took up their signs this weekend, this time outside of Barrie-Innisfil MPP Andrea Khanjin’s constituency office on Mapleview Drive in Barrie’s south end on Saturday morning.
Bill 23, the More Homes Built Faster Act, has implications for many aspects of housing issues in the province, and is to also help facilitate the creation of 1.5 million homes in the province over the next 10 years.
Many fear it will be a tool for the government to bypass current protections of sensitive farming areas and wetlands, such as Ontario’s Greenbelt, and fast-track housing and highway construction benefiting land developers who hold property on or near the proposed locations.
Several car horns could be heard as drivers showed support for the cause of protecting some of the province’s most significant wetland and farming areas.
Pekka Reinio, a longtime NDP candidate in provincial elections in the Barrie area, organized the local Protect the Greenbelt rally Saturday.
This isn’t the only rally that happened Saturday; several others were held across southern Ontario.
“I think that the Ford government is feeling the pressure from concerned citizens all across southern Ontario, and we’re going to keep sharing our concerns and hope that public pressure can make this government kill Bill 23,” said Reinio.
“Perhaps the Ford government and the MPPs are ignoring our calls to protect the Greenbelt, and I think citizens across southern Ontario are doing their best to show their concerns, but the Ford government doesn’t seem to want to listen to people, until public pressure builds so much that they have to flip their stance.”
Gail White knows well how environmental decisions made by governments can affect the future of a region.
“As a professional environmental planner and rural planner, I oppose all the aspects of Bill 23 … and there are so many. No. 1 is wetlands, because of the long-term hydrogeological effects of this,” she said.
Some feel this is a classic David-and-Goliath battle that is pitting speculative landowners who are wanting these sensitive areas developed at all costs against average citizens with little to fight with but their collective voice.
“Of course, it’s all about the money, and this is the most extreme that I have seen in my 30 years as a planner. I’m retired now, but I have never seen anything like this. This is bullying at the extreme,” said White.
The deadline to submit comments to the standing committee reviewing Bill 23 was Thursday.
