Do you like living in Waterloo Region?
If you do, then please help us keep it a great place to live. Doug Ford wants to destroy the collaborative barn-raising approach and bold, visionary planning that has made Waterloo Region great. We can't let this happen.
Our three urban cities and four rural municipalities spent three years working with regional planners, politicians and hundreds of citizens to come up with the next 30 year Regional Official Plan.[i]
It's the sustainable plan we need for the future with a focus on complete 15-minute communities, housing choice, affordability, improved transit, active transportation, ambitious climate targets, along with strong farmland and environmental protection.
Doug Ford is out to destroy that. His Bill 23 currently being rushed through the legislature will end all regional planning, tear apart the Region of Waterloo and the Grand River Conservation Authority. Ford's vision is for massive amounts of unsustainable urban sprawl, and he's already started forcing that on municipalities that don't want or need it.[ii]
He's ordering the destruction of huge tracts of irreplaceable farmland and even parts of the Greenbelt – to the delight of developers who've contributed millions of dollars to his political campaign.[iii]
Worse yet, Ford is taking away our democratic rights and proper processes. Bill 23 eliminates public notice and public meeting requirements, forbids Conservation Authorities to speak up while forcing them to sell off protected lands to developers, and ends the ability for citizens to appeal decisions at tribunals.
We can't sit back and watch the Waterloo Region we've built through years of collaboration, discussion and compromise be destroyed by Ford's need to build unsustainable and unaffordable homes on precious farm lands and conservation areas.
Our focus in Waterloo Region has been on efficiency and regionalizing services such as police, paramedics, public transit, and economic development. Ford’s backwards plan will undo years accomplishments. It will compromise shared regional initiatives such as our core renewal, ION LRT Rapid Transit, Environmentally Sensitive Landscapes, and our unique Countryside Line concept that protects our farms and Mennonite communities.
Please help us keep Waterloo Region a great place to live. Please contact our local Conservative MPP’s Mike Harris Jr, Brian Riddell, and Jess Dixon along with Minister Steve Clark and Premier Doug Ford. Tell them Bill 23 must be stopped along with the attacks on regional planning and the Greenbelt. For more information and help on what to say please go to www.holdthelinewr.org.
Brought to you by a broad consortium of community, environmental, agricultural groups and neighbourhood associations across Waterloo Region including the Grand River Environmental Network, Hold The Line Waterloo Region, 50x30WR, The Nith Valley Ecoboosters, Smart Growth Waterloo Region, and many others.
[i] There was only one dissenting vote out of 17 at Waterloo Region
Council, Regional Councillor Michael Harris.
[ii] Halton and Hamilton plan
attacks -- https://www.thespec.com/opinion/editorials/2022/11/09/pushing-back-against-doug-fords-heavy-hand.html
- Will Waterloo Region's Official Plan be next?
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