Staff
To no one’s surprise, Meaford council will not be supporting a proposed expansion of lands under the control of the Niagara Escarpment Commission (NEC).
The move was expected even before a special council meeting convened Tuesday evening at the Woodford Community Centre that drew approximately 200 people. There was little support there for the expansion, which would affect lands south of Highway 26.
Only three people expressed even guarded support for the NEC or the proposed expansion, and those sentiments were booed lustily by the audience, which seemed primarily comprised of rural residents, many of them agriculturalists.
One man said he thought the proposed expansion would ultimately benefit the area and property owners, since an objective was to preserve agricultural land. He was nearly booed down by the crowd entirely, making further comments difficult to hear.
Toward the end of the meeting, another suggested that “that sometimes the land needed protection from us” as a possible benefit of the NEC expansion. That was also booed down.
As a female spectator stated, though, it was somewhat unclear as to exactly what in the proposed changes to the NEC lands had most of the people reacting so negatively, even after a number of people spoke about their opposition.
Much of the resistance, both from audience members and councillors, was centred on a lack of consultation by the NEC and province in announcing the proposed changes and concerns over property values.
A common refrain among the spectators was that “we don’t need anyone from Toronto telling us what we can do with our land.”
Mayor Barb Clumpus told the audience that she thought the municipality had a good grasp of policies controlling and protecting the development of its lands, and didn’t need more assistance.
Deputy-mayor Harley Greenfield went further, raising the rhetorical bar by saying the proposed changes were an “affront to democracy” and Canada’s status as one of the world’s great democracies.
Other councillors, including Tony Bell and Steven Bartley, also spoke strongly against the changes.
Some of the specific impacts on Meaford were outlined in a staff report presented by planner Rob Armstrong.
In that report he stated that “the proposed changes to the existing land use designations will result in an increase of 10,793 hectares in lands to be designated as Escarpment Natural in Grey County. The Escarpment Natural is the most restrictive designation in the Plan that would apply to private property.
The proposed area for addition to the NEP is 20,921 ha, which would leave only 16,803 hectares of land, or 32.6% of the land area in the Municipality of Meaford, within our policy and zoning control.”
In concluding the report, which was presented to the audience, Armstrong stated “based on our review of the proposed changes to date, Planning Staff have significant concerns with the changes proposed to policies and the designations within the existing NEP area and the area proposed for inclusion with the NEP as noted within this report.”
The council unanimously approved the report, as well as a resolution from Greenfield stating the municipality did not support the proposed amendments to the plan.
