Hamilton MPP Donna Skelly says 'fear tactics' being used to fight urban boundary expansion

A Hamilton Progressive Conservative (PC) member of provincial parliament (MPP) says people who say the provincial government is paving over farmland are using "fear tactics" to oppose the expansion of the city's urban boundary and removal by the province of some parts of the Greenbelt.

"We are talking about developing lands earmarked for this years ago … it isn't being farmed," Donna Skelly, the PC MPP for Flamborough—Glanbrook, told CBC Hamilton.

Skelly's comments come days after the PC government announced late Nov. 4 it was ordering Hamilton to expand its urban boundary by 2,200 hectares.

Skelly says the expansion is necessary to accommodate projected growth for the next 30 years, citing the federal government's plan to see 500,000 immigrants come to Canada per year by 2025.

"Hamilton needs these people … but they won't come here if they don't have a place to live," she said.

"None of the land we're talking about isn't earmarked for mansions, we're talking about townhouses and multiplex homes and intensification around transit routes. We're doing everything we can to address the housing crisis."

Last year, the city considered expanding its boundary by 1,310 hectares before city council voted 13-3 in November 2021 not to touch it. Residents had overwhelmingly supported maintaining the current boundary — the results of a mail-out survey by the city saw 16,636 people vote to hold the boundary and just 1,088 vote to expand it. 

The province's expansion plan includes more density in some parts of the city but also development over most of the city's "whitebelt" lands, which is land between the current boundary and the Greenbelt. 

That also includes Elfrida — which has some of the finest and most productive farmland in the province, according to Drew Spoelstra, a Binbrook, Ont., farmer and vice-president of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture.

"We need to ensure farmers can expand their businesses and we can continue to produce food at home," Spoelstra told CBC Radio's Metro Morning.

'Some of the best land we have'

The province also said it planned to remove roughly 769 hectares of land in Hamilton and Niagara from the Greenbelt, despite Ford previously saying he wouldn't touch those lands.

"We're looking at land that should have never ever been part of the Greenbelt … land that is ready to be developed," Skelly said. "It's the right thing to do."

Skelly said every hectare removed from the Greenbelt for growth will be replaced by twice as much — and she says it's land that actually should be in the Greenbelt.

That compromise isn't good enough for Spoelstra.

"The land that is potentially being removed here from the Greenbelt is some of the best land we have here in Hamilton," he said.

"The agricultural value of that land [being added into the Greenbelt] isn't nearly as significant as some of the land that's being proposed to be removed."

Councillors should sell their homes: Skelly

While the Hamilton-based West End Home Builders' Association previously said in a statement it "fully supports" the province's recent announcements, many city councillors have spoken out against them.

Ward 1 Coun. Maureen Wilson told Metro Morning there is available service land within the boundary that is mostly accessible to transit that could be used instead.

"As a post-industrial city, we have large parcels of vacant, unproductive properties we want to put into use," she said.

She said outward growth has largely fuelled the climate crisis and infrastructure deficit.

Skelly said a lot of people who already live in Hamilton don't want to stay near towers.

She also said vacant buildings in the city won't be enough to house people and the province's plan is better than the one put forward by critics.

"I'd like to ask people on council, if you're sitting in a single-detached home and you really believe the only solution is intensification and highrise buildings in the downtown core, then sell your house and move into one of these towers," she said.

"But they're not. They're in single-detached homes and angry we're building townhomes … so other people get to realize the dream of home ownership."

While the boundary expansion is a provincial order, some councillors have already proposed ways to resist.

Ward 8 Coun. John-Paul Danko recently said the plan can't move forward unless the city services it.

"I see no reason council would approve funding servicing for any of this land," he wrote on Twitter.

Some citizens are also continuing to fight. Local organizations Environment Hamilton and Stop Sprawl HamOnt are hosting a rally on Sunday at 11 a.m. alongside York Boulevard near Dundurn Castle.