This is the third in a three-part series of guest columns from the Simcoe County Greenbelt Coalition leading up to An Evening with Margaret Atwood, a sold-out fundraising event slated for Oct. 28.
The Greenbelt needs to be expanded to protect our water resources
Through my last two columns, I spoke about what the Greenbelt take outs meant for Simcoe County and highlighted the deep connections to our environment that led to our region being one of the most active in protecting the Greenbelt.
I also spoke to the range of policy changes that have been implemented over the past six years that directly threaten the water, farmland and greenspaces we all know and love — including Lake Simcoe.
The reality is that a healthy environment is not something that is guaranteed. In fact, it wasn’t until this summer that Canadians’ right to a healthy environment was enshrined in legislation under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act.
It would be nice if all levels of government were clearly focused when it comes to ensuring that we have clean, plentiful water, clean air and the ability to feed ourselves with local farmland. Sadly, this is far from the truth.
And the longer governments dither on putting in strong, protective policies or continue to perpetuate myths that you can’t have a strong economy as well as a healthy environment, the more urgent and more drastic their actions must become to avoid disaster.
Climate forecasts for the region are grim. Source water protection committees in their climate assessments spoke of shallow, private wells running dry, new sources of water needing to be found and lake intakes needing to be lowered.
With loss of groundwater recharge areas and changes to precipitation, demand will likely exceed supply, so more droughts and water restrictions should be expected across the region.
A 2023 study out of the University of Waterloo assessed that Simcoe County’s water resources were at high risk of its quality degrading and that activities that harm our water (aggregate, dewatering for construction, certain types of manufacturing) were also very high. Literally, a deadly combination.
Further, Lake Simcoe will see fewer days of ice, an increase in blue green algae events and likely more beach restrictions or closures. Within 30 years, the lake could reach toxic levels of salt. All of this will wreak havoc on the species within the lake which impacts our related recreation and tourism economy. A sick Lake Simcoe is bad for the region and everyone in it.
And with the loss of wetlands and increased sprawl that has been promoted through policy changes by the provincial government, we can expect more flooding. Of course, that is an expensive and tragic consequence for citizens, businesses and local governments. Protecting floodplains and wetlands from razing and paving would go a long way to counter this impact, but, again, recent policies have moved us in the other direction.
Knowing all of this and seeing the lack of focus and conversation about these impending disasters has been frustrating to say the least. Solutions are available. Mitigation and adaptation is possible, but we can no longer allow the outdated status quo answers and ways of doing business continue.
From 2015-2017 David Crombie led an expert interdisciplinary panel including farmers, developers and scientists to understand the province’s policies that govern how we use and zone our land.
The purpose was to ensure that those policies, including the Greenbelt, were used in a way that makes our communities healthier, more equitable, more affordable and more climate resilient. One key recommendation of the panel was that the Greenbelt should be expanded to protect the lands that steward our water resources including wetlands, moraines, aquifers and groundwater recharge areas.
Why? Because the policies of the Greenbelt restrict harmful activities such as development and aggregate mining.
After that panel report was released, the Simcoe County Greenbelt Coalition led the local charge to have the Greenbelt further expanded in Simcoe County. The provincial government of that time had agreed and provided evidence that Simcoe County’s water resources were under threat and that the Greenbelt needed to be expanded further in our region.
However, we had several groups that were very vocal against this — developers, municipalities that wanted to continue to sprawl as well as some local farmers that wanted to cash out to speculators.
In my opinion, none of them had the best interest of Simcoe County residents in mind although they used elegant words to make it seem so. In the end, a change in government meant all of the good work and science that would have seen our water resources better protected, was abandoned.
That was five years ago and the impacts from climate have been increasing. I feel Simcoe County and people across Ontario are ready to have that conversation again.
Unfortunately, it requires governments to be truthful and transparent about the challenges that scientists say we’re going to be facing. It also requires the willingness of the provincial government to move away from ideology and towards evidence. Promoting highways and sprawl is entirely in the wrong direction to avoid water scarcity and contamination issues in the future. We are no longer in the 1950s.
I know that the vast majority of citizens across the region and province want to ensure that they leave things better than they found them and provide a good future for upcoming generations. The government of Ontario is currently steering us in the wrong direction. Working together, I think we can take back the wheel and ensure that we’re doing everything we can to provide healthy communities now and into the future.
With funds raised from our ‘Gather’ event on Oct. 28 with Margaret Atwood and friends, we will be gathering the science, mapping and community support we need to make protection of our water resources a key priority. If you’d like to support this important work, Atwood will be matching all charitable donations made until Oct. 28. You can make your donation here.
Margaret Prophet is the executive director of the Simcoe County Greenbelt Coalition.
