Hundreds protest in Pickering, demand province reverses Greenbelt land swaps

Hundreds of people staged a protest Sunday outside the office of Ontario Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy to demand permanent protection for the Duffins Rouge Agricultural Preserve (DRAP), which was removed from the Greenbelt.

The protest comes days after the province's auditor general said the Ontario government's process for choosing protected Greenbelt land to open up for housing development was heavily influenced by a small group of well-connected developers who now stand to make billions of dollars.

In a 95-page report released Wednesday, Bonnie Lysyk offered a damning assessment of how the province selected sites last year for removal from the Greenbelt — a vast 810,000-hectare area of farmland, forest and wetland stretching from Niagara Falls, Ont., to Peterborough, Ont., that was meant to be off limits to development.

Lysyk made 15 recommendations in the report, but Premier Doug Ford said his government would accept and implement only 14. The single recommendation it will not accept is the call to revisit the land swaps and possibly reverse those decisions, he said.

Ford said Friday that he will not back away from plans to build on the protected Greenbelt, despite the damning auditor general's report and experts saying his housing targets can be met by building elsewhere.

Speaking with CBC News Sunday, Abdullah Mir, co-chair of Stop Sprawl Durham — the group which organized the protest — said they want the Ford government to adopt the lone outstanding recommendation.

"They've said they're going to adopt 14 out of the 15 recommendations of the auditor general's report. The only consequential one, they're not adopting. I want them to adopt it, which [would] return the Duffins Rouge Agricultural Preserve lands to their rightful owners — the people of Pickering," Mir said. 

"Return the agricultural easements on those lands, keep them as agricultural lands in perpetuity … They can do this as of tomorrow. On Monday, recall the legislature … and return these lands. Do the right thing." 

Pickering mayor says city must be made whole for development

Pickering Mayor Kevin Ashe issued a statement on Friday, days after the release of the auditor's report but in advance of the weekend protests.

Ashe said Lysyk's report raised a "number of concerns" but also noted the province has been clear that development in Pickering will go ahead. 

"With this decision being imposed on us, we will vigorously fight for our city's best interests," his statement said.

"We must ensure the necessary infrastructure, parks, and facilities are in place to support a high quality of life for both existing and new residents, and that all of the key stakeholders and agencies, as well as First Nations people, are consulted by the province during this process."

Ashe said above all he is demanding that Pickering be made whole for any future development within its borders. 

'Disgusted by what Doug Ford has been doing'

Jonah Brooker-Nulman, a 17-year-old downtown Toronto resident, said he decided to join the protest because he thinks it is time to stop suburban sprawl.

"I am disgusted by what Doug Ford has been doing," Brooker-Nulman said.

"This is also coming at a time when we are having things like the fires in Hawaii, the fires right here in Canada, lots of climate change related to disasters. We're starting to see what Mother Nature can do when we don't listen."

Brooker-Nulman said he expected to see more younger people at the protest.

"I'm only almost 18 and this is the stuff that could impact our kids, this is the stuff that could impact their kids. And I am a little bit upset that not more younger people [are here]," he said. 

"At the same time, I'm also really, really glad to see a lot of older people who will still care about our future, their children's future and the whole future of Ontario and this planet."

Eleanor Nash currently lives in Whitchurch-Stouffville, Ont.,  but said she and her late husband once operated a 160-hectare farm in the DRAP.

Nash said she has been "very actively involved" since the early 1990s in trying to set up some kind of protection for the land so it wouldn't revert to housing.

"Food land is critical for all of us. And I think that this is really Class A farmland and we need to hang on to it," she said.

"We're losing it very fast right now, I think 300-and-some-odd acres a day. And it's critically important we hang on to what we have, and it's right on the edge of Toronto. We need to have farmland there too."

Meanwhile, Mir said Sunday's protest is just "the beginning" of their campaign to pressure the Ford government to implement the 15th recommendation. 

"Five hundred people showing up, spending their Sunday out on the side of the road protesting is the beginning," he said. 

"We're going to continue to keep this heat up, we're going to continue to protest, we're going to continue to send letters to our ministers, to our representatives, to everyone around, to the premier … We're going to continue to make our voices heard."