Thank you for your quick action against Bill 66!
Yesterday, Municipal Affairs Minister Steve Clark tweeted that parts of Bill 66 will be dropped when the legislature resumes in February.
Minister Clark stated that Schedule 10 of the Bill will be dropped. Schedule 10 would have allowed municipalities to circumvent regulations, including the Clean Water Act and Greenbelt Act, as long as they could claim their development created employment opportunities. Schedule 10 also threatened headwaters of major streams that feed into the Niagara Escarpment and the Oak Ridges Moraine.
Your massive outcry convinced them to remove this portion of the bill. Clark told the Toronto Star the province “has listened to the concerns raised by MPPs, municipalities and stakeholders”.
“This new position shows that the people of Ontario see the Greenbelt as sacrosanct. It is not to be tinkered with,” according to John Bacher, Chair of the Ontario Chapter of Sierra Club Canada Foundation. “This step gives us concrete reason to hope that initiatives to gut Ontario’s Endangered Species Act and allow development right up to the edge of the Greenbelt will also be unsuccessful due to public pressure.”
Clearly, there is still work to do.
But for now, thank you for being part of the rising tide to fight Bill 66. Your response shows the pressure and taking action does matter. Now more than ever.
With thanks from Sierra Club Ontario!