The North Gwillimbury Forest is under attack
Jack Gibbons
Chair, North Gwillimbury Forest Alliance
The Doug Ford Government announced that it is planning to turn over 7,400 acres of Ontario’s Greenbelt to developers after repeatedly promising not to do so. If this proposal proceeds, it will create a dangerous precedent for opening up the Greenbelt’s North Gwillimbury Forest to development.
To make matters even worse, the Ford Government is proposing to direct the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority (LSRCA) to identify their conservation lands that “could support housing development.” This is a serious threat to the LSRCA’s new 890-acre nature reserve in the North Gwillimbury Forest.
But there is no need to sacrifice the North Gwillimbury Forest and Ontario’s Greenbelt to build more homes. There are thousands of acres of land in the Greater Toronto Area that are already available for development.
As the report from the Ontario Housing Affordability Task Force noted last February, “[A] shortage of land isn’t the cause of the problem. Land is available, both inside the existing built-up areas and on undeveloped land outside greenbelts,” adding “Greenbelts and other environmentally sensitive areas must be protected, and farms provide food and food security. Relying too heavily on undeveloped land would whittle away too much of the already small share of land devoted to agriculture.”
We need your help now to save the North Gwillimbury Forest
Please contact Caroline Mulroney and tell her that you are counting on her to respect the promises that she and the Premier have made to protect the Greenbelt. Please remind her that in 2020 Doug Ford told the Ontario Legislature: “I have not touched the Greenbelt, we won’t touch the Greenbelt, we won’t build on the Greenbelt.”
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