Doug Ford doesn’t understand the water cycle, or climate change.
Over the past few months, Ford and Steve Clark, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, have taken a sledgehammer to the environmental protections that were put in place, over decades of hard work, to protect Ontario’s water.
All of this was done to get “more homes built faster.” But ramming through Bill 23 as well as the Greenbelt swap outs is not the way to do this.
The changes will have a cascading set of effects that endanger the province’s water.
These policies take watershed management and protection away from our Conservation Authorities. Ontario’s CAs, our unique water guardians, are now handcuffed.
These policies drastically erode the protection of wetlands, which reduce flooding, remove pollutants and act like sponges to store water, slowly recharging our groundwater aquifers.
They unsustainably snip away at Ontario’s prime, fertile farmland, which also protect our aquifers.
They undermine our municipal land-use planning priorities, designed to protect natural areas. They increase costs for water infrastructure, and reduce parkland.
They break Ford’s promise to protect the agricultural lands, natural areas and water resources of the Golden Horseshoe’s Greenbelt.
This agenda for urban sprawl fails to protect source waters and recharge areas where drinking water comes from. Roads and buildings where there were none before leave runoff rainwater nowhere to go except storm sewers.
These changes reduce our resilience against the storms, droughts and flooding of climate change.
All of this leaves the public, which is angry and distressed and pushed past its limit, rallying to inspire our MPPs to better leadership and to reverse some of this.
How can citizens help make things better?
Upcoming events:
Saturday, February 25th - Welcome Back Event - Queen’s Park, 11:00am to 1:00pm Rally at the Legislature Lawn - https://www.welcomebackdoug.com
Get a complete listing of upcoming rallies at: https://environmentaldefence.ca/handsoffthegreenbelt/
Join a Group that is challenging these policies:
Environmental Defence - https://environmentaldefence.ca/handsoffthegreenbelt/
Ontario Nature - https://ontarionature.org/campaigns/bill-23/
Alliance for a Liveable Ontario - https://www.liveableontario.ca/
Speak Up, Write to politicians:
Premier Doug Ford - doug.fordco@pc.ola.org or 416-325-1941
Steve Clark - Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing - steve.clark@pc.ola.org or 416-585-7214
David Piccini - Minster of Environment, Conservation and Parks - david.piccini@pc.ola.org or 905-372-4000
Todd Smith - Minister of Energy - todd.smith@pc.ola.org or 613-962-1144
Michael Parsa - Associate Minister of Housing - michael.parsaco@pc.ola.org
Ted Arnott – Speaker and MPP Wellington Halton Hills – ted.arnottco@pc.ola.org
Some Local Conservative MPPs:
Mike Harris Jr - MPP Kitchener-Conestoga - mike.harris@pc.ola.org or 519-669-2090
Brian Riddell - MPP Cambridge - brian.riddell@pc.ola.org or 519-650-2770
Jess Dixon - MPP Kitchener South - jess.dixon@pc.ola.org or 519-650-9413
Some Local NDP MPPs:
Catherine Fife - MPP Waterloo - cfife-qp@ndp.on.ca or 519-725-3477
Laura Mae Lindo - MPP Kitchener Centre - llindo-qp@ndp.on.ca or 519-579-5460