Stop Sprawl Halton: protect 5,000 rural acres from development

Halton Regional Council make the decision on Feb. 9, 2022.

Bulldozer | Viditu via Foter.com - CC BY

Everybody loves a David and Goliath story.

You don’t have to go very far to find them. Think of Jason Bourne, Independence Day, Erin Brockovich, The Hunger Games. And, one of the best, an Amazon series starring Billy Bob Thornton as a flawed but brilliant lawyer tilting at the corporate windmills of America. The series name? Goliath!

From 2016 to 2019, 180 000 acres of prime Ontario farmland have been lost to development. For comparison, that is 75% of the size of the region of Halton. Or, 175 acres per day. That is roughly the equivalent of 175 football fields. Every day.

In this tale, David is Stop Sprawl Halton, an ad hoc group of interested citizens who believe it is imperative that we protect our valuable farmland while growing our communities in a responsible manner.

Goliath is the union of developers and the provincial government.

Similar stories exist all over Ontario. This one is about Halton, where there is an important Regional Council Meeting on Feb. 9.

It is important to emphasize that Goliath here is not the regional councillors. They have two choices when voting at their Feb. 9 meeting. They can choose to continue with the 70-year-long trend of consuming more and more farmland for sprawl. Or they can refuse to endorse the staff report that is urging them to approve the conversion of over 5000 acres from rural to urban. They can instruct staff to bring a new recommendation that protects Halton’s precious farmland and allows more sustainable growth within their current urban boundaries.

The developers have deep pockets because what they do produces huge profits – for the few. The government has deep pockets because of taxpayer dollars.

Joni Mitchell had this one nailed when she said, “You don’t know what you’ve got ‘till it’s gone. They paved Paradise and put up a parking lot.” The group believes that Halton farmland (the food basket of a nation) must not be savaged by the provincial government and developers. 5000 acres now (almost the size of Georgetown). How many more acres tomorrow? Once farmland is gone it…never…comes…back.

There are doable solutions here that include working within the boundaries of the towns. They all have undeveloped lands within their current borders. Use much less land and increase the density. Developers would like you to believe that this is NOT a money grab, that at the end of every driveway should be a single family home. Why is that? It is neither affordable nor sustainable. Unless you are the developers who don’t live where they dig and don’t care about farmland.

Stop Sprawl Halton is inviting anyone who is concerned about the future of food security and who values preserving farmland to support this cause. You can visit their website, StopSprawlHalton.org where you can learn more about the campaign and how you can order a lawn sign, contact regional councillors, augment the message on social media and support the campaign financially.

Yup, everybody loves a David and Goliath story….unless you’re Goliath.