Everyone within a 200-kilometre radius of Toronto has an opinion about the Greenbelt.
Some people believe that its two million acres of farmland, rivers, forests, wetlands and lakes are an irreplaceable natural resource and must remain protected at all costs. Others argue that the Greenbelt limits the supply of housing and drives up real estate prices. It's the most polarizing issue to hit the GTA since amalgamation.
When the province created the Greenbelt, in 2005, the goal was to limit urban sprawl and prevent further loss of farmland. After years of promising to uphold the policy, the Ford government reneged last November, announcing its intention to free up land from the Greenbelt to build 50,000 new homes-part of its More Homes Built Faster Act. The objections came fast and furious. Undeterred, the province has gone ahead with plans to allow development on roughly 7,400 acres from the Greenbelt and Oak Ridges Moraine, vowing to designate 9,400 acres elsewhere as protected land. Several well-known developers-some of whom have donated money to Ford's Progressive Conservatives in the past-own sections of the land being slated for development, raising questions about who stands to benefit now that sections of the Greenbelt are unprotected.
In March, the feds waded into the fray, commissioning an environmental study on the potential effects of development, but this has yet to stall Ford's momentum. The ongoing debate raging around the Greenbelt is most often reduced to pro conservation versus pro development and rarely gets at what is truly at stake for those who live and work on the land. In the pages ahead, an inside look at the people who know the area best.
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Esta historia es de la edición May 2023 de Toronto Life.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
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There will be blood
Bedbugs are-no exaggeration-everywhere in Toronto: our libraries, offices, schools, hospitals, hotels, transit and homes. Inside the always expensive, often traumatic, probably futile battle to eradicate the bloodsucking parasites that are ruining our lives
Work Less, Live More
The 40-hour workweek sucks. Ambition is overrated. Life is short. Confessions from the new and intentionally underemployed labour force
Dinner, Party
Four resto-clubs where you can fuel up then boogie down-all without leaving the premises
Urban Diplomat
One of my friends has started policing strangers' social lives online. If he overhears people gossiping, he'll whip out his phone and surreptitiously record.
Car Guy
Flavio Volpe built a $20-million concept car to show off Canadian auto parts. Now if only he could get someone to finance production
Lighting the way to more efficient treatment
Markham Stouffville Hospital's new GreenLight Laser is reducing hospital stays and wait times for prostate surgeries.
Saving Sila
Yara Abualjedian was nine months pregnant when the bombing started in Gaza. Her husband, Ahmad, was in Canada, 9,000 kilometres away, with no way to reach her. Then she went into labour. A story about love and perseverance in a time of war
BRUTE FORCE
Firouzeh Zarabi-Majd always wanted to be a cop, and she loved the job. Even when her fellow officers started harassing her, she said nothing at first. That's the codeyou don't go public, no matter what. But eventually she had to speak up, and it cost her everything
THE GOOD LIAR
Carolyn Krebs (alias Carolyn Goodman, alias Marian Linton) may be the city's most hated landlord. She ignores work orders, falsifies documents and evicts tenants without cause. How one woman is making a killing off a system that's too broken to stop her
THE SECRET CITY
INSIDER TIPS AND TRICKS THAT MAKE LIFE EASIER, CHEAPER, FASTER, SLOWER, TASTIER, SMARTER AND WAY MORE FUN