Leeds-Grenville: Concerned citizens and members of Sustainable North Grenville and Sustainable Merrickville-Wolford are holding a pop-up rally this Friday to protest the Ontario Government’s proposed Bill 23.
What: Pop-up rally to protest Bill 23
When: Friday, November 25, 2022 at 1PM - RAIN OR SHINE
Where: Outside MPP Steve Clark's constituency office,
100 Strowger Blvd, Brockville, ON
Here is more information from Sustainable North Grenville
"As municipal councils were just emerging from election day, the Ford government presented a Bill that purports to address the housing crisis by slashing the oversight of conservation authorities, allowing for unimpeded development on currently protected wetlands and other habitats, and furthering suburban sprawl.
Reckless, short-sighted environmental destruction: By allowing for the sale of precious woodlands and wetlands, and downgrading the oversight role of the Conservation Authorities, this government prioritizes the construction of a proportionately small number of homes over the enormous value contained in these lands. According to Sarah Tuck, a local doctor and environmental activist, “the resulting suburban sprawl would be public transit starved and car heavy, only adding to the air pollution and sedentary lifestyles that threaten our health.”
Developers profit, taxpayer burden goes up: While the bill aims to encourage speedy development of “affordable” housing by eliminating development and community benefit charges, the result would be skyrocketing costs to municipalities (and thus taxpayers) for infrastructure, recreational and transit service. These outlying developments would be costly to service, resulting in under-serviced neighbourhoods without equitable access to infrastructure that support health and quality of life such as public transit and parks.
Municipalities left in the dust: Under this bill the planning for progressive housing expansion already underway in certain municipalities and regions would be undermined or canceled, and sprawl style development mandated. Additionally, municipalities would have no ability to enforce high performance development standards and other green building standards aimed at producing lower emissions buildings.
“Our municipality has already told me that if this bill goes through as is, they will no longer have control over certain developments,” added Tom Graham, local resident and leading member of Sustainable North Grenville. “This isn’t right: local municipalities know what works for their communities.”
“We hope people in the area will join us on Friday” said Michèle Andrews, co-founder of Sustainable Merrickville-Wolford and Executive Director at DoorNumberOne.org. “We have to put the current and future health and wellbeing of our children and grandchildren back on the priority list.”
Brought to you by the following local, community-based organizations that are working to bring awareness and action to addressing the climate and environmental crises:
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