Niagara town will push province to make Greenbelt land removal easier for municipalities

An Ontario town wants the Ford government to make it easier for municipalities to remove protected farmland from the Greenbelt for development.

The majority of Grimsby council directed staff to make the request despite opposition from the mayor and two councillors and a warning from resident Annette Gibbons, who spoke as a delegate at the Monday council meeting.   

"If the province agrees to this request, it could set a precedent for other Greenbelt land removals," said Gibbons on behalf of the Grimsby Environmental Network. 

"And once our Greenbelt land is gone, it's gone forever." 

The province is in the process of reversing its decision to remove 15 sites from the Greenbelt, including two in Grimsby, following public pressure, scathing reports by the auditor general and integrity commissioner and an ongoing RCMP criminal investigation. 

Housing Minister Paul Calandra's proposed bill will also make it more challenging for anyone to remove land in the future by requiring the legislature to approve any changes. 

As CBC Hamilton recently reported, Grimsby's recommendations come with no public input. They also follow a private, invite-only roundtable with members of council, senior staff and developers, including those who own land in the Greenbelt and their representatives. The town previously said that event did not influence its recommendations about the Greenbelt.

At the council meeting Monday, planning director Harold Madi said the town has long advocated for land to be removed from the Greenbelt without success, which is why he's recommending a process that gives municipalities more say. 

"There's nobody on staff that has any preconceived notions of what those lands should be or that they should be developed," Madi said. "All we're requesting is the process be available where warranted and appropriate." 

He said the town needs to know if there's an opportunity for Greenbelt land to be removed to guide their future growth strategy. If the land is definitely not available, the town would have to build denser and higher, Madi said. 

Staff had also recommended to request the province stick with its decision to remove two sites from the Greenbelt to allow housing development to proceed. Council passed the motion Monday.

Some councillors questioned why the town wouldn't wait until the province' once-a-decade Greenbelt review process that's already set to take place in 2025, where municipalities can request land be taken out or added. 

Coun. Don Howe voiced skepticism that the province or the housing minister would approve Grimsby's requests and said it was like "spitting in the wind." 

"That particular minister along with some others are going to be walking around with nothing but two-by-fours across their backsides for a long, long time," Howe said. "They're not going to mention the word 'Greenbelt' at all."