More than two-and-a-half years after the first announcement of the province's commitment to "smart growth" principles, the land use and infrastructure policies that have been encouraging, facilitating and subsidizing urban sprawl throughout southern Ontario remain in place. That's the conclusion of a Pembina Institute report card released today on Ontario's progress on a smart growth strategy to deal with urban sprawl.
Smart growth is a widely accepted antidote to the urban sprawl that is consuming farmland and greenspace, and causing growing traffic congestion and smog throughout southern Ontario. Smart growth strategies emphasize development patterns that protect farmland, and make alternatives to the car attractive and viable transportation options.
Earlier this year the Pembina Institute outlined what a real provincial smart growth strategy for Ontario would look like. The report released today assesses the province's progress against that strategy in the areas of land use planning, fiscal and tax policies, infrastructure funding, sustainable energy and regional and local governance.
"The centrepiece of the province's strategy isn't the reform of land use planning, or changing tax rules to promote smart growth, as might be expected, but is instead a massive program of new highway construction in southern Ontario" (see attached map) said Dr. Mark Winfield, the report's author, and Director of the Pembina Institute's Environmental Governance Program.
The program includes three new highways over the Oak Ridges Moraine (the 404, 410 and 427 extensions), and two more north of the Moraine (the east-west corridor and the 407 extension), and another over the Niagara Escarpment (the mid-peninsula highway). This can only mean more sprawl, increased reliance on private cars for transportation, and greater congestion, smog and greenhouse gas emissions.
"If the government is serious about having a 'smart growth' vision for Ontario, then it has to put its money where its mouth is. Above all, this means a fundamental re-orientation of its investments from $1 billion per year on new highways, to infrastructure, like transit, that will make smart growth possible," concluded Dr. Winfield.
For more information call:
Mark Winfield: 416-978-5656 cell: 416-434-8130
Lori Chamberland: 613-235-6288 x 30
The Pembina Institute is an independent, not-for-profit environmental policy research and education organization. The report, Smart Growth in Ontario: A Provincial Progress Report can be viewed at www.pembina.org.