By Pepper Parr
May 1st, 2018
BURLINGTON, ON
Alvin Tedjo speaks out against any development in the Greebelt
It didn’t take Alvin Tedjo, Liberal candidate for Oakville North Burlington in the forth coming provincial election long o let people know where he stands on the Doug Ford announcement to permit some development of the Escarpment lands.
Tedjo speaks of a secret agreement that Ford has made – not quite sure how the word secret gets applied to a statement Ford made.
Tedjo said “Doug Ford’s secret back-room promise that he would pave over our green spaces is reckless and out of touch with communities like ours.”
What is not permitted are any plans to change the rural boundary that the province put in place in 2006.
Development north of the Hwy 407 – Dundas Road link is not permitted.
This map sets out the area within which the province wants to create a new highway at some point in the future. The highway is referred to as the NGTA – Niagara to GTA road.
The three settlement areas, Kilbride, Lowville and Mt Nemo can have some very minor and certainly low level residential development.
Burlington has fought hard on every occasion to keep development out of the rural Escarpment. When the provincial transportation Ministry talked of running a road through the Escarpment from about Kilbride and run south to the 407 people gathered in the hundreds at the Mainway Arena to put an end to that idea.
Tedjo added that the “reckless back-room plan to pave over countless farms, wetlands and forests would be a disaster for our environment and forever change the character of our local neighbourhoods.”
Tedjo has his finger on the pulse of the community – he was the first to speak out against Ford’s comment.
Nothing from the Mayor of Burlington, nothing from the Mayor of Oakville – so far.
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When the councilors were telling the people of Burlington and the ECoB group that in order to save the Greenbelt we would have to intensify. Build up not out. It appeared that the unloved Greenbelt was an orphan. Now as soon as we speak of allowing some development in the Greenbelt to lessen the pressures of intensification and make housing more affordable. By increasing the supply of development land thus reducing the demand and prices of housing. Suddenly the forgotten Greenbelt springs back to life. With thousands of mothers and fathers defending her. Many appear opposed to everthing. Perhaps some constructive ideas are in order. As all we do is bash others ideas and have few of our own.
I believe he refers to it as secret as in the toronto Star they mentioned it was told to developers by Doug in a private meeting not public so he was offering up grennbelt in private thus it was secret not publiuc till it was discovered by various interested public groups. That is my understanding.Thusfar the carbon tax or cap and trade is working find it has been reported and views to the contrary are scare tactics. See this article for more info if you have an open mind on the subject. https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2018/04/26/carbon-pricing-is-working-in-ontario-so-hands-off.html Can Phillip please provide evidence of xuts to health care and dumbing down of education system as I am curiou on these too. Also curios ho Doug Ford will improve health care at the same time as he will cut staff same with teachers. Waiting for some details from him on fully costed budget which wont happen as he is all about Trump politics it seems like his brother was.
See this article if you have an open mind on the subject??? This article is from the Red Star–the public mouthpiece of the Liberal party. I see the article failed to mention a few key realities–1. carbon taxes are projected to suck $8 billion out of the Ontario economy between 2018 and 2020 2. Wynne herself let slip that the carbon taxes are being used to support a bloated Ontario government payroll, not green initiatives (of course, the Green Energy Act has already been shown to be a disaster for Ontario 3. the cap and trade system is leaking money out of Ontario to California 4. Ontario is part of a regional economy that includes US states surrounding Ontario–none of which are paying these taxes, helping to make the Ontario economy less attractive to business. Probably just an oversight from the Liberal media.
The Liberal government likes to extol its dramatic increase in secondary graduation rates. But ask any front-line teacher, particularly in stem subjects, how this has been achieved. Largely by creating a “de facto no-fail policy” in the schools. Students who fail get sent to a program called “Student Success” where their sloth and indifference are rewarded by doing even less and receiving the credit. Many programs in the applied and college levels teach NO transferable skills that would allow a student to pursue a meaningful career–it does keep them off the unemployment lines while they are in school. Also check out the declining mathematical literacy rates in Ontario; of course, the Liberal solution is to cut out testing to hide this fact!
Nothing is as sacred as our Greenbelt…any other issues should be dealt with as such and bringing the issue of building on greenbelt was not a deflection to me, as all other issues are still open to be contended with.
I agree with Phillip’s comments. I would love to hear Tedjo’s response to the many unanswered questions about the Liberal record.
Ford has lost my vote because of his intent to pave / house over the greenbelt.
I note that it is taking Alvin somewhat longer to pounce on some other provincial issues–carbon taxes that raise the cost of living & reduce economic growth while doing NOTHING to reduce emissions (see how well BC has done); out of control spending and huge deficits; the largest sub-prime debt on the planet; cuts to healthcare and increased wait times; corruption at Queen’s Park; the dumbing-down of the education system. A nice try at deflection though.