Stream in Woods
I have been inundated with calls from constituents regarding the status of the Provincially owned lands in the Merton Study area because some confusing information has been circulating of late.
Here are the facts that I have been able to obtain.
On April 29 2014 Infrastructure Ontario Minister Glen Murray sent a letter to Provincial staff to confirm his commitment as Minister to retain the existing leases and public ownership of all the provincial properties within the Merton Lands which includes Deerfield Golf Course, Fourteen Mile Creek, and the property located at the corner of Third Line and North Service Rd. commonly known as the Third Line Lands.
He went on to say that he had been informed by MPP Hon. Kevin Flynn that there was interest in extending the lease of Deerfield beyond 2022 and the Minister asked Infrastructure Ontario (IO) to work with Deerfield to determine the level of interest and, if possible, how such an extension could be achieved.
Here is the link to the letter and the map.
On May 2 2014 the Provincial election was called and as of that date Provincial staff went into "caretaker mode" where, from what I understand, nothing moves forward until after the election.
On June 3rd, I was at an event where Minister Murray was present and he reconfirmed to me his intention to keep all the Provincially owned lands within the Merton Study area in public ownership. He later restated this commitment in an email to Mayor Burton.
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I hope this clears up any misunderstanding related to our current Provincial Government's commitment to saving the Merton Lands from development and ensuring that it remains green space for future generations to enjoy.
