Greenbelt Stewardship, Expansion and Protected Areas
Dynamic urban areas need to be balanced by thriving natural areas including farmland for local food. The Province of Ontario created the Provincial Greenbelt in 2005 spanning almost 1 million hectares. Unfortunately, despite record population growth and development pressures, most of Waterloo Region's most vulnerable natural areas and greenspace was left out of the Greenbelt. Thus, in the following years a number of local protections were created to ensure balance and the needed protections for future generations. These protection initiatives include Environmentally Sensitive Landscapes, the Protected Countryside, and the Countryside Line.
In 2021 the Provincial Government announced a study for Greenbelt expansion along the Paris-Galt Moraine that may see Greenbelt expansion in the future but then rejected any Greenbelt expansion despite thousands of citizen submissions asking for the same Greenbelt protection as elsewhere in the province.
In the autumn of 2022 the provincial government outlined a new devastating plan to open up the Greenbelt for development, allowing take outs and land swaps for the first time ever. These actions would shatter the integrity of the Greenbelt and turn it from protected lands for future generations and ecological services to a land bank for future development.
We all must speak up now to save the Greenbelt and ensure a sustainable future for our communities.
You can learn more at the following links: