Georgina Council’s shameful decision

From the North Gwillimbury Forest Alliance

In the 2014 municipal election, the people of Georgina sent a clear message: Protect our woodlands and wetlands. Unfortunately, our new mayor and most of our councillors seem to have decided to turn a deaf ear to the people who voted them into office.

Last night, in a display of bureaucratic hair splitting triumphing over principled action, Mayor Quirk and five councillors voted to continue to allow development in the heart of the North Gwillimbury Forest by approving a new Official Plan that leaves the Maple Lake Estates (MLE) lands ripe for bulldozing.

Only Councillor Dave Neeson had the fortitude to stand up and say that it is time for the town to prohibit development on MLE’s wetlands and woodlands. The others simply accepted the flawed logic that because the MLE lands are designated as Towns & Villages under existing plans, we must allow a 1,073 unit subdivision to be built there. They clung to the thoroughly debunked notion that the Greenbelt Plan somehow prevents them from acting and refused to recognize that the Planning Act clearly says that significant woodlands and wetlands are to be off limits to development.

We didn’t need to elect a new mayor to get these kinds of results — this is the same sort of evasive and compromised decision making that we have seen for far too many years in Georgina, and which the people clearly voted to end in the last election.

As hugely disappointing as it is to see our mayor and all but one councillor fail to fulfill their promise to protect the MLE lands, the battle is far from over.

The flawed Official Plan passed last night must now go to York Region for approval. We will be there asking the Region to close the giant loophole local councillors lacked the courage to address.

Should the Region also choose to place development interests before the interests of citizens, we will appeal the plan to the Ontario Municipal Board. Unlike our mayor and five of six councillors, we are not simply going to roll over and accept a subdivision being built in a provincially significant wetland.

Please send Councillor Dave Neeson a message thanking him for his principled action to try to protect the North Gwillimbury Forest. He has set an example that our Mayor and other councillors need to learn from — quickly.