Groups Push for Greenbelt Expansion

A push to get the Dalton McGuinty government to approve a major expansion of the greenbelt westward through Brant County and in other directions in southern Ontario is gaining fresh energy with the entry of new groups and controversial development activities.

For much of the past two years, a collection of groups has been advocating, either independently or in concert as the emerging Greenbelt Alliance, for expansions of the greenbelt area's original 1.8-million acre territory around the Greater Golden Horseshoe.

They want the protective environmental and agricultural zone to grow westward into Brant, northward through Guelph, the Town of Oakville, Markham and Simcoe County, and eastward to Prince Edward County.

Their main aim is to thwart development pressures that have jumped the established greenbelt lines and moved into new hitherto small, rural communities.

In Brant, groups such as Sustainable Brant and area members of the Greenbelt Alliance have been pushing for the county to be included, after watching developers and land bankers gobble up thousands of acres of farmland and pressure county council into developing spots just beyond the city of Brantford's boundaries.

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