David Suzuki Foundation asks Province to help save North Gwillimbury Forest

News release from the North Gwillimbury Forest Alliance

The David Suzuki Foundation, Ontario Nature, Environmental Defence, AWARE Simcoe and the NGFA have asked the Government of Ontario to instruct the Region of York that it must amend the Town of Georgina’s Official Plan to ensure that it prohibits development on the Maple Lake Estates (MLE) property located on the Paradise Beach-Island Grove Provincially Significant Wetland.

If the 1,073 unit MLE mobile home park development proceeds it will drive a stake through the heart of the North Gwillimbury Forest and split it in two.

The North Gwillimbury Forest is one of the ten largest remaining forests in the Lake Simcoe watershed — more than three times larger than Vancouver’s Stanley Park.

The Provincial Policy Statement (PPS) prohibits development on Provincially Significant Wetlands in southern Ontario. And Section 26 of the Planning Act legally obliges the Town of Georgina’s Official Plan to be consistent with the PPS. Nevertheless, Mayor Quirk and the majority of Town Council have repeatedly rejected our requests that they amend the Town’s Official Plan to prohibit development on the MLE property.

The Town’s Director of Planning has attempted to justify the Official Plan’s failure to comply with the PPS by noting that the Town has not received any objections to this omission from the Government of Ontario.

The Region of York is expected to approve and/or amend Georgina’s Official Plan at its October 13th & 20th Council Meetings.

Letter to the Minister of Municipal Affairs and the Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry: mauro-mcgarry-sept-14-2016