Quality of life in Ontario depends on smart growth

People from around the world come to Ontario for our quality of life, openness, inclusiveness and the opportunity to build a better future. It all depends on smart growth.

What do I mean by smart growth?

Greater Golden Horseshoe (GGH) communities welcome 100,000 people every year. The provincial government believes that by 2041, the region will add three million residents – a 45-per-cent increase, equivalent to the city of Montreal – to bring our region to a total population of 13.5 million.

We are one of the fastest growing regions in North America, which is why it is so important that we have a plan in place to support this growth and protect significant and precious environmental features.

Ontario’s Greenbelt and the Growth Plan work together to protect and conserve areas while creating new communities and requiring changes in our existing neighbourhoods.

Ontario’s celebrated and cherished Greenbelt protects more than 1.8 million acres around the GGH. It provides important environmental and ecological benefits to our growing region. It needs to be improved and enhanced to help our communities fight climate change, create new animal and plant habitats, clean our water, and provide new points of public access for residents to enjoy.

In short, investing in a Smart Greenbelt will improve our quality of life.

The award-winning Growth Plan was created to complement the Greenbelt – to answer the question of where we put those three million new people – in a thoughtful and proactive way. These decisions impact every aspect of community building in our region, from rural, to suburban to urban and everyone should have an opinion about it.

Acting as Chair of the Greenbelt Growth Plan review panel, David Crombie was asked to help us all understand just how connected these plans are to Ontario’s future quality of life.

Connecting the dots is always a challenge when discussing why and how new housing comes to communities.

It is sometimes difficult for existing neighbours to appreciate how new urban townhouses in midtown Toronto help protect rural agricultural lands. It is equally difficult to explain that a 40-storey condo built into a future subway station will improve the water service and prevent future basement flooding.

It is even more difficult to explain that new and improved GO service will require new transit-inspired communities filled with people who will use GO and help focus future growth along that transit line to reduce congestion on our highways and roads.

The Ontario Home Builders’ Association has been trying to help connect those dots.

Working with the Pembina Institute, we released “Making Way for Midrise – How to build more homes in walkable, transit-connected neighbourhoods,” a report that showed how intensification in transit-oriented communities will allow some cities to build up instead of out.

Applying smart growth principles means building new housing and offices along subway lines, LRT routes and GO stations. Transit-inspired communities will improve the quality of life for both existing and new neighbours, while helping preserve productive farmland.

I often hear the familiar criticism about 1970s suburban sprawl, but to state the obvious, today’s planning isn’t a Joni Mitchell song. Paving “paradise to put up a parking lot” isn’t an option; we need to connect the dots because we are all connected in this community.

The Greenbelt and Growth Plan are the cornerstones of progressive smart planning in Ontario. We are building better communities today because we all deserve to have the best quality of life.

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