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Mary Asselstine

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Welcome to my Blog

Category: Recent Posts

Bill 23 – “The promote urban sprawl and get rid of that pesky green space Act”

November 30, 2022

On October 25, 2022 the Ontario government tabled Bill 23, the More Homes, Built Faster Act.
According to the government this Bill is designed to address the “Housing Crisis” in Ontario and supports the construction of 1.5 million new housing units over the next ten years.

On the surface this seems laudable however the legislation fails to acknowledge that there is also an “Affordability Crisis”, a “Climate Crisis”, a “Species Diversity Crisis”, and a “Crisis in Democracy”. This myopic single issue legislation will do more harm than good and it is unclear who will actually benefit from it.

Let’s look at just a few of the details:

Your taxes are at risk of going up!
Development charges (fees levied to developers to pay for new infrastructure and services), and your tax dollar pay in part for the introduction of new residential development. Bill 23 proposes a reduction in Development Charges in an effort to reduce the price of new homes. In
reality, there is no guarantee that lower home prices will result. What is likely to happen however, is that your taxes will go up to support new development.

Conservation Authorities and York Region Planners provide assistance to the Township of King on matters of natural hazards, conservation of wetlands and woodlots, watershed planning, growth management, transportation planning, and service infrastructure.

Bill 23 cuts both the Region of York and the Conservation Authorities in part out of the local planning process downloading the roles to the Township of King. If we want to continue to implement the vision in our Official Plan new tools and staff resources will be required for King Township. As a result, it is likely that your taxes will go up.

Our Vision for Our Communities is at Risk!
Over the last few years the Township of King has completed a new Official Plan, new Zoning By-laws for the Villages and a Rural Zoning Bylaw. These documents form the vision that we chose for our communities. Along with these planning documents we have tools such as the Green Development Standards and the Village Design Guidelines that are implemented through “Site Plan Control”. These standards and guidelines help to encourage modern energy efficient and sustainable building designs and help to protect the character of our heritage and established neighbourhoods.

Bill 23 limits the ability of municipalities to apply “Site Plan Control”. So on a lot by lot basis, in our established neighbourhoods, there will be no ability to protect the character of the neighbourhood or encourage sustainable building design.

In addition, Bill 23 has made it much more difficult to protect heritage character by putting new rules and limitations on the application of the Heritage Act.

Your right to have a say in the future of your community is at risk!
Major changes to the Planning Act through the application of Bill 23 will severely limit your right to be involved. When planning applications are made for the development of a subdivision, there will no longer be a requirement for a statutory public meeting. Concerns from the public will consequently be heard later in the approval process when it is less likely to have any influence on the outcome. In addition, members of the public will no longer have any right to appeal a decision to the Ontario Lands Tribunal.

Our environment is at risk!
The Conservation Authorities have many roles including helping to protect our communities from the impact of natural hazards; protecting environmentally sensitive lands such as wetlands; and, assisting the Township of King by providing direction on development applications.

Bill 23 will seriously compromise the role of the Conservation Authorities by allowing exemptions from natural hazard permits, allowing wetlands to be drained and built upon, opening Conservation Authority lands for sale to the development industry and preventing municipalities from entering into agreements with conservation authorities to review planning applications on their behalf.

The Bill also sets the stage for urban expansion and future sprawl. Following the tabling of this Bill the Ontario Government proposed opening up Greenbelt Lands for development. These lands, which are outside of the defined urban boundary, have historically been protected to safe guard our drinking water, protect agricultural lands and protect sensitive ecosystems.

Conclusion
We need more homes, but what we need is increased density in existing urban areas (soft density) and support for more affordable units. There is enough existing designated residential land to accommodate growth for decades to come.

There is no need for Bill 23.

Discussions at the Door, Heritage, Nature, News, Planning & Development, Recent Posts

The Roland Michener Conservation Award

August 30, 2022

I was honoured this spring to receive the Roland Michener Conservation Award from the Canadian Wildlife Federation.   I travelled to Charlottetown for the award ceremony in my electric vehicle which was an adventure of its own and which I will talk about in another blog post.    It was inspiring and empowering to meet the other winners and to listen to their stories.  For more information on the award go to:
 https://cwf-fcf.org/en/explore/awards/winners/2022/CW-JulAug-Awards-1.pdf

I have included the text of my acceptance speech below.  It talks about the importance of support and community.  I know I would never have been able to accomplish what I have done without the help of my community.  King Township is a great place to live. 

 

It is an honour to be here tonight to receive the Roland Michener Conservation Award and to be recognised by the CanadianWildlife Federation.

I have to admit when I first heard about the award I was somewhat surprised.  Why was I receiving this recognition?  I just plod along and do what I do because I think it is the right thing to do; because it is who I am.  Then after discussions with my friends and family I realised that it is not really about me at all, but about the thousands and thousands of people like me;  those that care about nature and the communities that they live in. 

Behind me you are seeing photos of the Dufferin Marsh in Schomberg Ontario … a 5 ha wetland in the middle of the village … and pictures of some of the activities that the Dufferin Marsh Nature Connection has been doing over the last 30 years. I am a founding member of this community group and in reviewing the photos the first thing I noticed was how young I was.  I am heartened to know that there are still many young people today that are active and passionate about nature and some of them are in this room. 

I also realised that passion and tenacity and giving has given back to me.  I have learned so much about nature, fund raising, project management, communications, governance, development processes, and what makes a community work.  I have learned that through patience and persistence even the most ardent opponent can become an advocate.  My work with the Dufferin Marsh Nature Connection has provided the opportunity to make new and lifelong friendships; it has opened the door to positive and productive community, business and agency partnership; it has allowed me to share my knowledge and passion with anyone who will take time to listen; and best of all it has allowed me to advocate for the protection of the little gem of a wetland just down the street. 

When my 2 kids were growing up they had the luxury of roaming around and exploring our village.  I remember once my son Garth and his friend Scott got lost among the six foot high cattails in the Marsh looking for a short cut through town.  What an adventure they had.  I don’t think there are many childhoods like that anymore.  I was secure in the knowledge that they were being cared for and watched by the whole community. 

My community of family, friends, neighbours and business people have supported me through everything.  And most surprisingly they believe in me.  I want to acknowledge my husband, who sadly is not with us anymore, for teaching me about nature and how to find it a source of peace and joy; and my two beautiful children who helped with so many restoration projects and other activities with hardly a complaint; so many friends and family who answered the call to volunteer and were there to guide me when things got me down; from dog walkers to Township staff I could not have achieved anything without them. 

Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

 

 

Discussions at the Door, Nature, News, Recent Posts

Blog

August 17, 2022

Emerging from COVID

Like many people, when the COVID pandemic was first announced I stopped writing my blog, hid myself away, took up new hobbies like jigsaw puzzles and learned how to communicate and socialise over internet platforms.  My garden was my friend, and the grocery store was a bit scary.  For me everything changed.  Every personal interaction came with planning, logistics and the realisation of personal risk.  Vaccines promised the return to a normal life but somehow that has not really panned out.  Continuing uncertainty and pandemic exhaustion has reshaped my relationships and my community and has high-lighted weakness in our economy, service delivery, infrastructure and the social safety net.  Society has become more polarized than at any time in recent memory and people are calling out (with anger in some cases) for affordable housing, food security, reliable employment, equitable health care and most of all respect.  

We are not really emerging from COVID but rather limping into a new way of living.  And clouding all this are new wars, climate change impacts, disparity in food supplies, fires, floods, and loss of species diversity.  And as we speak democracy is being threatened around the world.  

How do we find hope? I think we find hope in putting aside anger and fear and in building strong communities … communities that provide for the needs of all individuals.  This has been my passion for years and I will doggedly talk about it, learn about it and advocate for it.  

Discussions at the Door, News, Recent Posts

What is Bill 66

January 11, 2019

Dear Editor

I know that most people who live in King Township care about protecting the environment. They care about clean drinking water, strong self-sufficient communities and effective public involvement in government decisions that affect them. Bill 66 (Restoring Ontario’s Competitiveness Act), a Bill that is being proposed by the Provincial government, opens the door to undermine all of these things. Under the pretext of supporting business and job creation, this Bill grants Municipalities the option to designate lands for employment purposes anywhere, ignoring the requirements of the Greenbelt Act, the Oak Ridges Moraine Act, the Clean Water Act, the Lake Simcoe Protection Act, the Planning Act and the Places to Grow Act, without any requirement or recourse for public input or appeal

So what is the Provincial government trying to do

  • Providing Employment – So let’s examine this more closely. I live in Schomberg. This is a tight-knit community of residential neighbourhoods and commercial and light industrial businesses that provide services and jobs. It is functionally walkable and provides opportunities for both outdoor and indoor recreation. It meets many of the requirements for a “sustainable” community. Included in the Village of Schomberg is a large area east of Highway #27 designated as employment lands. Much of this land has been left vacant for years. In fact every community in the GTA, through public consultation and the desire to build strong communities, has already designated employment lands … there is no shortage. Instead of opening up lands arbitrarily, effort needs to be made to develop the existing employment lands where services and infrastructure are already provided or planned for and where there is a local employment pool.
  • Cutting Red Tape – The government is trying to stream-line the development process by cutting red tape. I don’t know about you, but the Acts that safe-guard our drinking water, protect our right to effective public consultation and protect agricultural land and important environmental services and areas, do not seem like red tape to me.
  • Downloading the development process to the Municipalities – On the surface it looks like the Provincial government is giving Municipalities more authority … and in some respects they are. However it also gives Municipalities more burdens and responsibilities. Let’s say the Township decides to designate industrial lands adjacent to the 400. Makes sense … until they are required to take on the burden of building and maintaining services and infrastructure and start getting complaints about increased traffic, noise and pollution. Bill 66 forgoes all checks and balances and promotes only a single consideration in the planning process. Where is the vision? And if something goes wrong or there is public back-lash, the Province gets to wash their hands of it.

I have to ask this question. Who is the Provincial government listening to? The only people who benefit from this legislation are developers, who own large chucks of land throughout the GTA, and big business. I doubt if many of the jobs created would go to existing local residents. There may be some tax benefit but will that be off-set by the new costs? In the end it will push our villages closer to bedroom communities and farther from the sustainable communities that we want.

Are you concerned? Not everyone has time to get involved in large picture planning considerations like this one, but there are a few things you can do. Contact your councillor … mine is Bill Cober (bcober@king.ca), the mayor Steve Pellegrini (spellegrini@king.ca) or the Township CEO Susan Plamondon (splamondon@king.ca). And you can contact your MPP Stephen Lecce (stephen.lecce@pc.ola.org). Ask questions. Let them know what you think. For more information or to sign a petition you can go to https://act.environmentaldefence.ca/page/35250/action/1environmentaldefence.ca.

Mary Asselstine

 

News, Planning & Development, Recent Posts
  • Bill 23 – “The promote urban sprawl and get rid of that pesky green space Act”
  • The Roland Michener Conservation Award
  • Blog
  • What is Bill 66
  • Schomberg/Lloydtown
  • November 2022
  • August 2022
  • January 2019
  • October 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018

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