Margaret Prophet, Executive Director of the Simcoe County Greenbelt Coalition says, “In early 2018, we participated in the province’s consultation to expand the Greenbelt into Simcoe County. It was clear then that our aquifers, forests, shorelines and wetlands needed to be off limits to sprawl.
At that time, the province agreed and proposed expansion plans were ambitious for this area.
Three years later, the only thing that has changed is that the threats have increased as policies that protect our natural spaces from sprawl and protections for endangered species have weakened considerably.
We have seen development applications threaten provincially significant wetlands, floodplains, pristine forests all while our local lakes and rivers become increasingly sick.
We have reports from local Conservation Authorities that predict with a changing climate, we may see sources of water run dry and may not be able to keep up with current demand.
So if this government is truly serious about protecting Ontarians it is time to be genuine with that and ambitiously expand the Greenbelt to stop greed from threatening our water supply with overzealous sprawl.”