Think the Greenbelt is protected? It isn't, and conservationists say it needs to be

The Greenbelt encircling inner urban Ottawa needs legal recognition to protect it from development, conservationists say, and a federal push to create a network of national urban parks across the country could be the solution.

If it isn't enshrined in legislation, they say the Greenbelt will continue to be subject to the changing whims of all levels of government and even the board of directors at the National Capital Commission (NCC), which has a much clearer mandate for development than for conservation and has long complained of not having the money to properly maintain its assets.

"A lot of people think the green space around us is protected and will always be there, but at the end of the day it's not," said John McDonnell, executive director of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society's Ottawa Valley chapter, which wants the Greenbelt to become a national urban park.

"We are in a climate and and biodiversity crisis. The city declared a climate emergency [in 2019], and so having all of this natural infrastructure … it's critically important that we maintain that."

Stronger mandate for development than conservation

The NCC's job, according to the act that governs it, is "to [plan] for and assist in the development, conservation and improvement" of the region to reflect its national significance as the seat of the federal government.

The problem is that development, conservation and improvement can be at odds with each other, and while the act says the NCC can "construct, maintain and operate parks," not a single other reference to green space or conservation is made.

The Greenbelt is not defined or even mentioned.

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In its most recent master plan for the Greenbelt from 2013, the NCC included "arbitrary boundaries" first in a list of threats to its ecological integrity, followed with fragmentation by and impacts from nearby urban development, among other things.

The plan said a legal definition of Greenbelt limits hadn't yet been established, but the NCC "anticipated" it would be done in the plan's lifespan — about 10 years, which ends soon.

The NCC did not answer questions about whether a legal definition of Greenbelt limits has been completed (and if not, what forces have prevented it), whether it's been approached about the Greenbelt becoming a national urban park and what it thinks of the idea.

City explored developing Greenbelt in 2008

Developing the Greenbelt isn't unheard of, and you don't have to look too far into the record to find pushes for it.

In 2008, under mayor Larry O'Brien, city staff wrote a white paper to start a public conversation about developing at least 5,500 hectares — about 27 per cent — of the Greenbelt, specifically rural and agricultural land.

None of the paper's reasons against development included environmental protection. In fact, it characterized the Greenbelt as a detriment to the environment, forcing urban sprawl further afield and increasing emissions by making people commute across it.

Fourteen environmental groups united to write a scathing letter to city council decrying the paper as "seriously flawed," and a questionnaire seeking comment from residents as "so highly biased that it invalidates any resulting analysis."

The few responses received were opposed to Greenbelt development, and the idea was "not carried forward," according to Nick Stow, a city program manager for natural systems and rural affairs.

Development still permitted in small pockets

While still not approved by the province, the city's new 2021 Official Plan continues to open the window for limited Greenbelt residential development in "historical settlements" outlined in the zoning bylaw and previous official plan: Burke's Settlement near Shirley's Bay, Blackburn Station near Blackburn Hamlet and Ramsayville along Highway 417 near Russell Road.

Confusingly, the new plan talks about "harmonizing" city policy with the NCC's Greenbelt master plan, but the NCC's existing plan discourages developing anything but certain federal institutions and sustainable farms, and says specifically that existing homes in Burke's Settlement and Blackburn Station should be removed over time.

The NCC said it owns most of the land in the three settlements and "does not plan" to develop them.

Royce Fu, the city's policy planning manager, said the new Official Plan permits development if the NCC chooses to develop its land, and that it also supports the naturalization of those lands. Fu said the exception applies to privately held land in the Greenbelt, or that isn't included in the NCC's Greenbelt master plan.

Paul Johanis, chair of the Greenspace Alliance of Canada's Capital, said the big issue is what the NCC ends up doing in the future.

"They can develop within the Greenbelt … or, more worryingly, they can dispose of Greenbelt parcels, which then could be purchased and developed by private interests," he said.

Meanwhile, the NCC's Greenbelt master plan is about to be reviewed. The NCC said it expects to start planning the review process in 2023.

Squabbles elsewhere in Greenbelt

There are other pressures.

Earlier this year, city council approved the city's preferred east-end Transitway and extension of Brian Coburn Boulevard through the Greenbelt near the environmentally sensitive Mer Bleue Bog, even though the NCC is staunchly opposed to that route.

Johanis said it underscores why legal protection is needed.

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"If we don't get any change to the protective framework, legislative framework for [the Greenbelt], then it will always be fighting these battles," said Johanis, adding that the alliance is putting together a working group of organizations interested in making it a national urban park.

Another possible pressure could come from the province, which has vowed to build 1.5 million homes by 2031.

A report filed earlier this year by the province's housing affordability task force — struck by Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Steve Clark — says specifically that greenbelts and environmentally sensitive areas "must be protected."

But all the homes will have to go somewhere, and McDonnell of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society isn't convinced the province won't change course.

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"We're concerned [the housing crisis] could put pressure on the Greenbelt … which is why we feel that now is the time to walk the boundaries into legislation and to ensure that everyone knows these lands are off limits," he said.

No national urban park underway yet in capital region

In 2021, Environment and Climate Change Canada said it was going to create a network of national urban parks across the country.

Work is already underway on sites in Winnipeg, Halifax, Windsor, Ont., and Saskatchewan, and around Edmonton and Victoria. Discussions are also underway about a possible site in Montreal, Parks Canada said.

The current goal is 15 such parks by 2030, modelled after the first created in 2015 in Toronto. Potential sites must conserve nature, connect people with it and help reconcile with Indigenous peoples.

Site ideas in the National Capital Region have been floated "but an official intake process has not yet begun," Parks Canada said, declining to provide more details.

McDonnell said the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society put the Greenbelt and Gatineau Park forward, and that the work is just beginning.

The society is asking mayoral candidates to take a position on the issue, McDonnell added.

So far Catherine McKenney has pledged to make the Greenbelt a national urban park, Mark Sutcliffe called the idea "recycled," Mike Maguire had questions about it and Param Singh said he didn't think the designation would change anything.