Bill 23: "More Habitat Destroyed Faster”

Start: Saturday, November 26, 2022•11:00 AM

End: Saturday, November 26, 2022•12:00 PM

You have probably heard about the controversial Bill 23, the More Homes Built Faster Act. Do we all want more affordable housing? Of course.

But this is NOT the way to get there. Houses belong in towns and cities, not on farmland, forests and wetlands.

Let our new MPP John Jordan know that we do not accept this reckless bill.

What is wrong with this bill? "A sampler”:

Lanark County’s Wetlands threatened -Lanark County is home to some of the last large remaining wetlands in southern Ontario. Since wetlands store 2-5 times the carbon forests do, we can’t afford to have our wetlands release carbon and make the climate crisis worse.


Reckless, short-sighted environmental destruction: By allowing for the sale of precious woodlands and wetlands, and downgrading the oversight role of the Conservation Authorities, this government prioritizes the construction of a proportionately small number of homes over the enormous value contained in these lands. According to Sarah Tuck, a local doctor and environmental activist, “the resulting suburban sprawl would be public transit starved and car heavy, only adding to the air pollution and sedentary lifestyles that threaten our health.”

Developers profit, taxpayer burden goes up: While the bill aims to encourage speedy development of “affordable” housing by eliminating development and community benefit charges, the result would be skyrocketing costs to municipalities (and thus taxpayers) for infrastructure, recreational and transit service. These outlying developments would be costly to service, resulting in under-serviced neighbourhoods without equitable access to infrastructure that support health and quality of life such as public transit and parks.

Municipalities left in the dust: Under this bill the planning for progressive housing expansion already underway in certain municipalities and regions would be undermined or canceled, and sprawl style development mandated. Additionally, municipalities would have no ability to enforce high performance development standards and other green building standards aimed at producing lower emissions buildings.

35 Municipal leaders and 10 Conservation Authorities in eastern Ontario wrote a response to Premier Ford and the Ministers of Housing and Municipal Affairs (Steve Clark), Natural Resources and Forestry (Graydon Smith) and Environment, Conservation and Parks (David Piccini). The letter has also been co-signed by 35 municipal representatives.

https://www.rvca.ca/media-releases/eastern-ontario-mayors-support-ca-concerns-about-housing-bill-23

Join Us!

This event is organized by Sarah Harmer, Susan Brandum and Anita Payne de Gaia and Climate Network Lanark. Please join us if you can.

Other Events

Also note that there is a rally on Friday November 25 at 1 pm at Steve Clark's office in Brockville and another on Sunday November 27 at City Hall in Kingston from 11 am to noon.

Relevant links/media:

https://environmentaldefence.ca/handsoffthegreenbelt/

https://www.rvca.ca/media-releases/bill-23-less-protection-more-cost-diminished-local-decision-making

https://www.nation.on.ca/loss-local-decision-making-bill-23-does-not-work-eastern-ontario

https://ontarionature.org/campaigns/bill-23/

https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-92-all-in-a-day/clip/15950315-the-ontario-government-revising-parts-its-sweeping-housing