President's Letters

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Dear PALS Supporters,

The next six 6 months of land use planning in Ontario will be crucial, as municipalities struggle under a Provincial government dictum to complete their Official Plans for the next 30 years of growth by July 2022. While some municipalities are anxious for "market-based" growth, and in the case of York, development within the Greenbelt, others are resisting, and Hamilton City Council has just voted for fixed urban boundaries. What is most worrisome for PALS as the Region develops its Official Plan, is that Regional Niagara Planning Consultants have eagerly promoted a higher population growth target than the Province specifies which will, they say, require more farmland and natural areas to be developed. Additionally, just this week, a Regional Planning document alerted us to their favourable view of development applications for urban expansions onto Niagara Falls grape lands - a scenario against which PALS fought and won at an earlier OMB hearing, and last Fall, recommended for inclusion in the Greenbelt; a planned shopping mall on large acreages of prime farmland and natural areas in Fort Erie; as well as West Lincoln's proposed expansion onto prime farmlands . Meanwhile, tender fruit and grape lands continue to be lost to, or negatively impacted by greenhouses, commercial uses such as cannabis operations and most recently, tourist-oriented event venues.

All of this, plus the strong provincial commitment to Highway 413, which includes lands within the supposedly permanent Greenbelt, confirms that we must continue our work to attain the tender fruit land program that the Conservative government cancelled in 1995, and Liberal Minister of Agriculture Jeff Leal, backed by then St. Catharines MPP Jim Bradley, supported between 2015 and 2018. Therefore, a few weeks ago we sent a strong letter and backup materials to the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs outlining the extensive values of investing in restrictive covenants to protect these very special fruit lands in perpetuity and asking for a meeting with her to make our case. (see Quotables page 4 & 5)

We will keep you posted,

Doug Woodard