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In February 2021, the Province of Ontario announced its plan to grow the size of the Greenbelt. The Greenbelt Plan and A Place to Grow: Growth plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe work together to provide a framework for where and how growth should be accommodated in Southern Ontario.
On February 28, 2005, the
Greenbelt Act, 2005 was passed by the Ontario government and protects nearly two million acres of farmland and environmentally sensitive areas. Over the past 15 years, the Ontario government has worked to expand the protections of the Greenbelt. In 2017, the Greenbelt protections were extended to 21 major urban river valleys and 7 coastal wetlands.
May 6, 2021 · 0 Comments
By ROB PAUL
The Ontario government has appointed Norm Sterling as Chair of the Greenbelt Council.
The former Minister of Environment, and founding member of the Niagara Escarpment Commission, will focus on helping the province as it undertakes what could result in the largest expansion of the Greenbelt since its creation in 2005.
“Mr. Sterling brings important experience to the Greenbelt Council, and I am confident that under his leadership there will be incredible work done to support growing the Greenbelt,” said Steve Clark, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing. “As a fellow grandparent, we understand the importance of leaving all of our grandchildren, and great grandchildren, with an enhanced version of the gem that is the Greater Golden Horseshoe.”
Ontario Municipal Affairs Minister Steve Clark, pictured in 2018. The Greenbelt Council s new chair reports to Clark. File photo by Alex Tétreault
The new chair of Ontario’s Greenbelt Council is under fire over his environmental record again, this time for his approach to climate pollution as environment minister in the 1990s.
Norm Sterling who was lambasted by critics shortly after the Ford government appointed him last week for voting against the creation of the Greenbelt when he was a PC MPP was an environment minister in the Mike Harris government.
A longer look at his record also shows Sterling’s environmental legacy is complex. He was resistant to climate targets in the Kyoto Protocol, and oversaw the Environment Ministry as carbon emissions rose and senior officials instructed staff not to enforce regulations in hundreds of cases. But he also helped shape Canada’s first environmental land use plan and implemented legislation aimed at cracking down on smoki
Posted: May 01, 2021 12:36 PM ET | Last Updated: May 1
Retired MPP and environment minister in the ‘90’s who voted against the creation of the Greenbelt will now oversee its development.
The Ontario government has appointed a former environment minister to chair the Greenbelt Council in a move that has some environmentalists shaking their heads.
Retired MPP Norm Sterling replaces David Crombie, who resigned as chair with six other members of the council in December to protest proposed government rules that they said would gut environmental protections in Ontario.
An NDP MPP and an environmentalist are speaking out against the appointment of Sterling, who served under former Progressive Conservative Premier Mike Harris in the 1990s.
The new chair of the Ford government’s Greenbelt Council was Ontario’s environment minister leading up to the Walkerton tragedy, an E. coli outbreak that killed seven people two decades ago.
Norm Sterling who oversaw cuts to the environment ministry’s budget that were later found to have contributed to what happened in Walkerton was a Progressive Conservative environment minister under the Mike Harris government. As an MPP in 2005, he voted against the creation of the Greenbelt.
Sterling replaces former chair David Crombie, who resigned along with six others late last year in protest of the Ford government’s move to limit the powers of conservation authorities.