As we told you last month, Ontario’s government is poised to lock in 30 years of highway-and-sprawl-driven land use. Doing that will pave huge swathes of our best farmland, destroy much of our most diverse and sensitive wildlife habitat, push dignified housing even further out of reach for more Ontarians, and consign most Ontarians to wasteful suburbs where greenhouse gas emissions are sky high because we can’t easily commute, shop, or run errands without relying on a car.
In order to head off this looming disaster it is vital that Ontario’s elected representatives force an immediate u-turn in laws and policies around land use planning, highways and transportation, and watershed planning and flood protection. In particular, Environmental Defence has asked all of the major political parties to commit to:
- Stop Sprawl: Protect farmland and wildlife habitat in Ontario’s most imperiled southern regions with rules that contain growth within existing urban boundaries
- Transform Suburbs into Complete Communities: Ensure that the next 30 years of new homes and workplaces are used to transform Ontario’s existing car-dependent suburbs into complete communities where most trips rely on public transit and active transportation.
- End exclusionary zoning that reserves the vast majority of residential land in almost all Ontario municipalities for the most wasteful, low-density, car-dependent, environmentally harmful forms of housing, and replace it with new rules calculated to drive the creation of lots of compact, lower-cost housing like townhomes, semi-detached homes, duplexes, and walk-up apartments (i.e., duplexes & triplexes) to existing low-rise residential neighbourhoods.
- Cancel Highway 413 & the Bradford Bypass
Here is what each of Ontario’s major parties committed to do on these policy fronts in response to the The Ontario Environmental Priorities Working Group Provincial Election Questionnaire.
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Question: Will your party protect farmland and wildlife habitat in Ontario’s most imperiled southern regions by immediately canceling Hwy. 413 and the Bradford Bypass and restarting the Municipal Comprehensive Review process with rules that contain growth within existing urban boundaries?
Will you ensure that urban growth for the next 30 years is used not to create more car-dependent neighborhoods, but to transform Ontario’s existing car-dependent neighborhoods and commercial areas into complete communities where most trips rely on public transit and active transportation?
Note: We have selected the relevant sections of each party’s answers. To see the full answers visit: greenprosperity.ca/election
Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario (PC) Response:
On Stopping Sprawl and Canceling Settlement Boundary Expansion
Did not answer.
On Using New Growth to Turn Car-dependent Suburbs into Complete Communities
Did not answer.
Canceling Highway 413 and the Bradford Bypass
Did not answer.
Ontario New Democratic Party (NDP) Response:
On Stopping Sprawl and Canceling Settlement Boundary Expansion
The Ford government has upended the land use planning system with politically-driven Minister’s Zoning Orders benefitting his buddies, and a new growth plan that forces municipalities to sacrifice even more precious farmland to costly and unsustainable sprawl.
We will ensure responsible development within existing urban boundaries, while protecting farmland and natural heritage from costly, irresponsible and wasteful sprawl.
On Ending Exclusionary Zoning & Using New Growth to Turn Car-dependent Suburbs into Complete Communities
An NDP government will work with municipalities to reform land use planning rules to encourage and accelerate the construction of homes in complete communities close to transit, schools, healthcare, grocery stores, and recreation centers.
We will end exclusionary zoning and ensure an adequate supply of different housing options that are affordable, meet the diverse needs of different families, and are located where people want to live.
We will ensure responsible development within existing urban boundaries, while protecting farmland and natural heritage from costly, irresponsible and wasteful sprawl. This includes aligning growth with transit investments, and updating zoning rules to enable the construction of affordable “missing middle” housing – like duplexes, triplexes and townhomes — wherever residential development is allowed.
The NDP’s updated housing platform, Homes You Can Afford, can be found here: https://www.ontariondp.ca/housing
Canceling Highway 413 and the Bradford Bypass
Yes.
Investigative reports have revealed that the main beneficiaries of Highway 413 and the Bradford Bypass are well-connected developers who are also friends and donors of Doug Ford and the PC Party. These gifts to political insiders will cost taxpayers over $10 billion, while destroying the Greenbelt and prime farmland — and will only result in more traffic congestion over the long-term, not less. Public infrastructure should serve the public interest, not Doug Ford’s developer buddies.
An NDP government will cancel these unnecessary and costly highways, and instead use the billions saved for healthcare, education and public transit.
Ontario Liberal Party (OLP) Response:
On Stopping Sprawl and Canceling Settlement Boundary Expansion
More homes need to be built, but we can’t just keep spreading further and further out – encroaching on farmlands, wetlands and other greenspaces. We need to add more family-friendly housing options to the communities where people already live, which means restoring urban intensification requirements that the Ford Conservatives weakened. Preventing urban sprawl will also help Ontarians live closer to the places they work and enjoy – meaning less time commuting and less traffic.
On Ending Exclusionary Zoning & Using New Growth to Turn Car-dependent Suburbs into Complete Communities
We are committed to building complete, integrated, resilient, walkable, accessible, and safe neighborhoods with access to fast, reliable, and affordable public transit systems, recreational amenities (parks, trails, community centres, urban green space), active transportation facilities such as protected bike paths as well as critical public infrastructures such as hospitals, schools, and childcare centres.
We will also make record-level investments in building new public transit infrastructure, lower the cost and improve the user experience and frequency of transit.
Canceling Highway 413 and the Bradford Bypass
An Ontario Liberal government will stop Highway 413 which is Doug Ford’s reward for his billionaire friends which will pave over thousands of acres of environmentally sensitive areas while also destroying prime farmlands.
Instead, our government will invest that $10 billion to build new and repair existing schools ensuring that our students can learn in energy-efficient, climate-resilient, state-of-the-art educational facilities, including improved ventilation.
We’ll pause any further work on the proposed Bradford Bypass until a new environmental assessment is done – since the current assessment hasn’t been updated since 1997. If this assessment fails to meet environmental and community standards, we’ll stop the Bradford Bypass just like Highway 413.
Green Party of Ontario (GPO) Response:
On Stopping Sprawl and Canceling Settlement Boundary Expansion
Yes. As our Roadmap shows, Ontario Greens are the only party serious about stopping car-dependent sprawl.
We will enforce existing urban boundaries … create no new car-dependent neighborhoods, eliminate subsidies for sprawl.
That will allow us to permanently protect precious prime agricultural land, currently being lost to sprawl, highways and gravel mining, and smartly expand the Greenbelt.
On Ending Exclusionary Zoning & Using New Growth to Turn Car-dependent Suburbs into Complete Communities
We will enforce existing urban boundaries, create no new car-dependent neighborhoods, eliminate subsidies for sprawl and ensure that urban growth transforms Ontario’s existing car-dependent neighborhoods and commercial areas into complete communities where most trips are made by public transit and active transportation.
Instead, we will provide ample housing in compact, clean, connected, affordable communities within existing urban boundaries. We will accelerate construction of infill housing, particularly missing middle and affordable housing, and public greenspace. This will allow Ontarians a better quality of life, with better air quality, better health, lower municipal taxes and easier commutes.
Canceling Highway 413 and the Bradford Bypass
We will immediately cancel Highway 413 and the Bradford Bypass
Check out our other Election Issue Guides on Climate Change and on Endangered Species, Conservation Authorities, Aggregates & Water Pollution
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