Developing issue

Astark contrast between Nova Scotia and parts of central Canada is the difference in population density. In this province we could certainly use more population and — depending on where it is — more development.

Compare that to southern Ontario, for example, where some of the best agricultural land in the country also features a thick band of the greatest concentration of population and industrial and urban development in Canada.

It made for an interesting standoff in that province’s politics this week, with an election in the wings. Conservative leader Doug Ford had come up with an election promise last week to open up protected green space within that crush of humanity to housing development – a move he felt would help ease the lack of housing in the Greater Toronto Area.

The Greenbelt — the world’s largest permanently protected green space — is a 7,200-squarekilometre area that borders the Greater Golden Horseshoe region around Lake Ontario. It was protected from urban development by legislation in 2005.

It wasn’t difficult for embattled Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne to pick up the gauntlet on this one. She called Ford’s pledge “wrongheaded,” saying opening up the Greenbelt would make the area into a “Swiss cheese map,” and that you’d never restore what you lost in such a concession.

“You never get that water protection back. You never get that agricultural land protection back,” Wynne said

Wynne might be struggling to maintain sufficient popularity to win the provincial election in June, but she was far from alone in her stance on this subject. Perhaps not surprisingly, Ford has since backtracked on this proposition because of the widespread opposition.

In an article by The Canadian Press, Mitchell Kosny, associate director of Ryerson University’s school of urban and regional planning, said the Greenbelt was established to control and manage growth. Opening parts of it up for further development, he said, would compromise the integrity of the plan, adding more highways, vehicles and pollution.

Beyond the logistics of urban planning, one might add that development atop any green oasis in the midst of the proverbial Canadian concrete jungle would sap much of the enjoyment of natural spaces the people currently have in this metropolis.

This outcome might well mean having to intensify the study of current urban components for ways to alleviate any housing crisis. It could mean more efficient design, improved public transit or redevelopment of areas that have become less than desirable.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, there’s a lesson in Ontario’s political brinksmanship on this issue.

Successive Nova Scotia governments have made progress over the years in protecting some of the more sensitive natural areas and preserving tracts.

The imperative remains into the future to always carry out due process when determining areas to develop, places to allow industry and parcels that need to be protected — for the sake of the natural world and people’s enjoyment of it.

Nature is resilient, but once covered in concrete is certainly up against it. We want to avoid wrong, irreversible steps.