TORONTO — Ontario Greens are encouraged by Halton Region’s decision to freeze its urban boundary until 2041.
“Congratulations to everyone who helped make this occur,” Ontario Green Leader Mike Schreiner said. “We can address the housing affordability crisis while protecting the farmland that feeds us and the wetlands that protect us from flooding.”
On January 26, Schreiner held a news conference alongside councillors Jane Fogal and Colin Best, calling on Halton to say no to a proposal to pave over 5,000 acres of prime agricultural farmland.
“We saw it recently with Hamilton, and now we see it with Halton: municipalities that say no to expensive sprawl,” said Ontario Greens Deputy Leader and Environment and Climate Critic Dianne Saxe. “Urban sprawl doesn’t solve the housing crisis. It ramps up climate pollution, destroys nature, increases the fee of living and locks families into long commutes in North America’s worst congestion.” Saxe helped to encourage anti-sprawl decisions in each Hamilton and Halton.
“Nobody desires to have an unaffordable lifestyle where they’re forced to commute hours just to search out a reasonable place to live,” Schreiner said. There are already 88,000 acres inside existing urban boundaries within the Golden Horseshoe region alone available for development.
“We will make use of that existing space by constructing communities where people can live, work, play and shop. Livable and inexpensive communities which are higher for our quality of life, health and wallets.”
For more information on the Ontario Greens’ housing strategy: gpo.ca/housing
