Beware premier when he’s bearing Greenbelt gifts

Ontario Premier Doug Ford delighted many environmentalists last week when his government announced it will expand the province’s popular Greenbelt into Waterloo Region to protect more land than ever from development.

At first glance, the promise to safeguard the vast Paris-Galt Moraine, which filters and replenishes much of the region’s groundwater supply, seemed too good to refuse.

On closer inspection, it might turn out to be too good to be true.

The local regulations already in place to keep construction crews off precious farmland and bulldozers out of our vital environmentally sensitive areas, might, in fact, be superior to what Premier Ford’s offering us.

So, when we hear the Region of Waterloo asking tough questions about Ford’s Greenbelt expansion, we say keep talking. And when we hear regional officials warn that the municipality might actively oppose the plan if it turns out to threaten the local environment, we say do what is necessary.

Whatever Ford’s intentions, this region is already doing much of the heavy lifting when it comes to preserving its green spaces. It imposed hard boundaries on the region’s three cities to prevent sprawl. Its $1-billion light rail system was built largely to direct new development into urban cores, not outward into the countryside.

It’s no idle boast that the regional government has maximum protections in place for the groundwater supply, on which local residents depend so heavily for their own needs. And regional policies already guard the portion of the Paris-Galt Moraine that lies within this municipality.

That’s crucial because 15 per cent of regional drinking-water wells draw from this moraine, a long ridge created by ancient glaciers. Also important are the stringent regional rules governing local gravel extraction, an activity that, unchecked, can threaten groundwater supplies.

But what if some future, more pro-development regional government wanted to scale back those protections? Well, if that happened such a government would need to clear a lot of hurdles. There would be public meetings in addition to council meetings that would be open to residents. Any changes would ultimately require provincial approval. In contrast, it’s less likely for local citizens to have a meaningful impact on legislation passed by the provincial government in Toronto.

To anyone who suggests these Greenbelt worries are off base, we’d say look at Ford’s own dubious environmental track record.

He’s the premier who cut money and power out of the province’s conservation authorities — including the Grand River Conservation Authority. On his watch, the province increasingly uses Ministerial Zoning Orders to fast track environmentally unsound developments.

Now the Progressive Conservatives are moving ahead to build the Highway 413 megaproject that would pave over thousands of hectares of untouched farmland and natural spaces. And take note: Part of that highway would be built over some of the existing Greenbelt.

With all this in mind, here’s the key question for the people of Waterloo Region: Would expanding the Greenbelt provide stronger or weaker protection for a large swath of land that runs through the east side of this region? We need to find out.

Unless the Greenbelt expansion plan offers better safeguards than the existing ones, or would defer to the local regulations when there was a conflict, our community should want no part of it.