Stop the Big Sprawl

The Big Sprawl is a series of policies brought in by the current government of Ontario designed to make sprawl developers richer at the expense of our precious remaining farmlands, forests and wetlands. Right now municipalities across the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area are making decisions on what land will be swallowed up and paved over.

Write a letter to the editor of your local papers to get the word out about the Big Sprawl – and tell your municipality to say NO to sprawl and YES to protecting nature and building livable, walkable communities.

Here are some key points to consider when writing your letter (please do not copy/paste):

  • Sprawl makes climate change worse, increases the cost of housing and costs municipalities more in services, leading to higher property taxes.  Click here to download a factsheet on the true costs of sprawl.
  • Municipalities can choose to Stop the Big Sprawl and protect our precious farmland and natural areas by growing within existing urban boundaries, building communities that are vibrant, livable and climate-friendly.
  • The Big Sprawl won’t help communities – it will only make sprawl developers richer.

In Peel Region, 19,000 acres of farmland and nature are at risk of being swallowed up, including the land around Campbell’s Cross Creek and other upper tributaries of the West Humber River, which provide some of the last remaining habitat for the endangered redside dace.

In Durham Region, more than 20,000 acres of land are threatened by developers, including the ecologically vital headwaters of Carruthers Creek in Pickering.

In Halton Region, over 10,000 acres of land are in developers’ sights, where they hope to pave even more of the sensitive Sixteen Mile Creek and Bronte Creek watersheds.

In Hamilton, which has ample opportunities for attractive new urban housing of all types, more than 3,000 acres of farmland and environmentally sensitive land are still in danger of being paved, despite massive public opposition. Sprawl developers have resorted to trying to trick the public into signing petitions that support settlement area boundary options.

In York Region, more than 5,000 acres are currently at risk, with plans to more than double the region’s annual rate of sprawl to nearly 800 acres every year.

For more information visit TheBigSprawl.ca.