Premier Doug Ford has promised over and over again to protect the Greenbelt, but late on a Friday afternoon, in the middle of a labour crisis, his government quietly dropped a plan to remove 7,400 acres of land from the Greenbelt, including the precious Duffins Rouge Agricultural Preserve. As of December 14th, the province has officially removed these lands from the protection of the Greenbelt and Oak Ridges Moraine legislation.

The government says they will replace the lost land with land elsewhere – but many of the proposed additions are already protected. Furthermore, even if those lands weren’t already protected, the very possibility of taking any land out of the Greenbelt will undermine its effectiveness by creating an open season on farmland for land speculators and sprawl developers.

These new attacks on our Greenbelt came hot on the heels of Bill 23 - which strips environmental protections to make it easier to build costly car-dependent sprawl.

Bill 23, and associated policy changes, will:

• Create a process for selling off conservation lands without oversight
• Strip conservation authority powers which protect us from floods
• Remove protections from woodlands, wetlands and wildlife habitat
• Do almost nothing to build more affordable homes inside of our cities and towns where they are needed

Tell Premier Ford and your Member of Provincial Parliament to repeal Bill 23 and keep their promise to protect the Greenbelt.

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Your letter will be sent to Premier Ford, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing and your local MPP.