Support Expansion of the Greenbelt

Environment Hamilton has called on city council to support local expansion of the 1.8 million acre provincial Greenbelt established three years ago. The call came in a media release timed to coincide with provincial requests for input on the criteria for “Growing the Greenbelt” that came before council in May.

“Hamilton should be at the head of the line in seeking more protection for the valuable farmland around our city,” our statement argued, noting that the city pays lip service to the crucial goal of preserving our agricultural capability, but repeatedly erodes it in practice.

We pointed to rapid rises in food prices and the cost of fuel as reasons to permanently protect more local farmland, and challenged councillors to re-think city plans for urban boundary expansions into prime agricultural land around the airport and near Elfrida.

“It’s extremely foolish to be undermining our ability to feed ourselves at a time when the global price of grain and other basic foodstuffs has doubled in the last two years,” EH pointed out. “Our food security is also threatened by rapidly escalating fuel prices that make importing food more costly and agricultural production more challenging.”

EH also made formal comments to the provincial government on the criteria to expand the Greenbelt. We asked them to allow members of the public to initiate requests to grow the Greenbelt, noting that it is “very unlikely that many municipalities will be willing to consider” taking this step.

“A process that enables community members to initiate the process and require municipalities to engage in a process of discussion and consideration of such community desires is very much needed at this point in the life of the Greenbelt,” we suggested.