Ontario government’s Bill 23 accelerates concern about loss of farmland

After four years of rolling back protective Greenbelt legislation, the Ontario government’s More Homes Built Faster Act is opening acres for urban development.

The Greenbelt was established in 2005 to protect environmentally sensitive lands and farmland from urban development but the recently announced act, known as Bill 23, will remove 7,400 acres from protection. 

Wayne Caldwell, professor of rural planning and development at the University of Guelph, said he can’t recall a time when the government moved so powerfully to override the wants and desires of communities regarding their growth trajectory.

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Why it matters: The Ontario government plans to allow more homes on protected lands, which concerns farm groups and conservation authorities.

Caldwell said Bill 23 diminishes the rights and responsibilities of individual citizens to engage in the planning process and influence policy, and it modifies a decades-old balance of accommodating urban development.

“That was a balance of trying to accommodate urban development in the context of appropriate growth, into appropriate locations, at appropriate densities, with appropriate timing,” he said.

The omnibus legislation would roll back the powers of Conservation Authorities (CAs) and eliminate permits for development projects approved under the planning act. It prevents CAs from entering agreements with municipalities regarding planning proposals or applications and requires them to identify CA-owned or controlled lands to support housing development.

Bill 23 would overhaul the Ontario Wetland Evaluation System, making fewer wetlands designated as significant, and would override CA’s ability to regulate or prohibit development that negatively affects wetlands, rivers and streams.

Caldwell tipped his hat to the Ontario Federation of Agriculture’s evolving farmland protection policy, which ensures decisions made to protect farmland are in the interests of the farm community, livelihoods and agriculture.

Drew Spoelstra, OFA vice-president and Hamilton-area farmer, said Hamilton city planners put forward a plan that could meet growth targets through denser development while maintaining a healthy, productive farmland base around the urban boundary.

The province’s rejection and subsequent amendments will force Hamilton to open land for development, most of which is prime agricultural land that produces food, fibre and fuel. In addition, the proposed changes remove Greenbelt acres, including a market garden operation that produces local foods for consumers around Ancaster.

Spoelstra said everyone has witnessed higher costs and demand for diversity in housing. The OFA supports the need for housing, but said building and growth must happen responsibly.

“The bottom line is that most of these plans aren’t good for agriculture. They’re not good for future planning of the farm business in these areas and around the GTA,” Spoelstra said. “We think there are better ways to get there than just gobbling up more prime ag land.”

Amendments to the current plan would see development on Whitebelt land earmarked for future growth past 2050. The Whitebelt is not currently developed, but is not protected from future development. It’s comprised of lands between the outer edge of approved urban development areas surrounding the Greater Toronto Area, Hamilton, and the Greenbelt.

“Do you want to grow your urbanized area and make it as best it can be? Then in 2051, you have these Whitebelt lands, if we need them, and you can plan as responsibly as possible to utilize that land to its best use.”

When protected areas like the Greenbelt are opened to investors and developers, it can trigger land speculation, inflate land values and reduce emphasis on densification and preserving farmland, said Caldwell.

“There’s a risk there. If you’re putting more people into smaller confirmed spaces, you tend to create better quality urban spaces, but you’re also protecting farmland somewhere.”

He noted the planning process can be slow but for a good reason. It allows time to conduct studies on the short- and long-term impacts of development that could result in liabilities for the municipality.

“We need to address housing, (but) we need to do that rationally, and sometimes planning decisions do honestly take too long,” he said. “But often, it’s for a reason, and it’s about making sure that we don’t jeopardize the future with fixed or term decisions that may undervalue some of those historical things we’ve done pretty well in this province.”

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The Greater Golden Horseshoe is one of the fastest growing regions in the country. Janet Horner, executive director of the Golden Horseshoe Food and Farming Alliance, said the government must carefully manage expansion and land use there to protect agricultural production.

“With a temperate climate, fertile soils and proximity to local and North American markets, farmers and food businesses in the area have an unmatched opportunity to meet the growing demand for food,” said Horner in a news release.

“Protection of the land base through sound land-use planning and intensification policies will help ensure that Canada’s food supply chain remains strong.”

In 2020, the agri-food sector within the 7,200 square kilometres of Greenbelt generated approximately $4.1 billion in GDP. It provided 59,000 jobs and generated $900 million in farm purchases of goods and services in 2017, according to a Greenbelt Foundation report released in February 2022.

Spoelstra said not all government officials grasp the rapid disappearance of farmland from the landscape. He hopes commodity groups will present a united front in lobbying the province to protect agricultural lands.

The pandemic highlighted the importance of domestic food security and Ontario’s ability to produce food, he added.

“The OFA is not the authority on planning in the province, but I think we can safely say we are one of the authorities when it comes to agriculture,” said Spoelstra. “This will have long-term negative effects on farming. That’s not something we want to see happen.”