Rode my bike down the Guelph Line this afternoon, cut east through the farms and country acreages on Derry Road, along the majestic outcropping of limestone that defines this piece of the Niagara Escarpment, then past the blue sign that says “Welcome to Milton.â€
A few hundred yards on, the treeline by the road disappears, as do the houses, the barns, the horses and the split rail fences. I gear down to see maybe seventy-five or a hundred acres of farmland stripped of topsoil, edged with low black and orange plastic fencing. It’s Sunday, so the site is silent. Lined up in the middle of it are about forty pieces of orange and yellow equipment, giant earthmovers, bulldozers, scrapers and tamping wheels. They sit amid a forest of orange stakes jutting out of little mounds of fertile dirt left by the machines. In the front, on eight-by-eight posts, is a giant billboard with a picture of an infant on it. “Traditions,†says that headline. Buy a new home here and start a tradition that will last generations.
I stop the bike, stare a while at the line of equipment, and wonder just what this field will look like in a few generations. Hell, it’s hard to imagine what it will be in nine months – covered with houses, crawling with cars and full of people trying to grow spring flowers in dirt they just bought at Canadian Tire.
As I have told you many times, the defining feature of Halton is houses. They grow like weeds. People pay a lot to move here on the edge of the Toronto metropolis. It is expensive, busy, desirable, trendy and under pressure. Local government has opened the door to development, in part because it means more revenue from property taxes and a larger share of the federal gas tax. The school boards, both of them, are spending vast sums on new buildings and platoons of portables for the ones they just built. Roads cannot be widened fast enough. The 401 is a mess. Toronto smog days now extend all the way out to Milton, Oakville and Burlington.
I write about this because there will, of course, be consequences. Already are. Not just with real estate values, traffic patterns and unmet demand for community services. Not just the growing number of disaffected youth looking for something cool to do in a hick town. Not just the lack of affordable housing. Not the paucity of urban transit. Not just the social stuff.
Instead, this field stripped to its subsoil nakedness in the blistering late July sun is a symbol of something far more serious than those human problems which more taxes can solve. This is a rape of the land. There are other consequences.
Spoke with Peter, my farmer neighbour a day or two ago. He farms pieces of land all over the place now, from up in Georgetown to down close to Burlington. No choice, since to survive you need an economy of scale, and that’s the way land is now in this region. Small farms are disappearing for many reasons and virtually no young people are getting into the business. The average farmer is now 62 years old. In fifteen years, well, do the math.
Peter shakes his head, says no country without a stable food supply can survive. Talks about the problems here, in Saskatchewan, in Quebec. He combines with a machine that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, and is worn out long before it’s paid for. With commodity prices as they are, no farm can survive without subsidies. What’s the point?
This summer it has been 30 degrees or close to it almost every day where I live. Tomorrow the humidex is forecast to be 45. I read that Canada has never been warmer. The States, too. Yesterday came word of a study that showed the amount of sunshine hitting the earth is decreasing measurably, and yet we still get hotter – thanks to all the crap we have thrown into the atmosphere.
There are now restrictions on the amount of water people can put on their lawns. There are heat emergencies declared just about every week in the city. People with breathing problems are told to stay inside. Police are breaking into parked cars to free pets dying of heat exhaustion. The polar ice cap is melting and the sea is rising.
And I’m standing in front of 40 pieces of heavy equipment too hot to touch with an ungloved finger in a field denuded of vegetation where every molecule of moisture is being fried.
I hear that in October the Conservative government will be unveiling as new green plan – air protection, water protection, a made-in-Canada Kyoto strategy – and I can hardly wait. I’m not alone, watching a skinny coyote run across the gouged, empty dirt, looking for shade.
Our present patterns of behaviour cannot reasonably continue. Here in sprawl country the causes and the effects are obvious. It will take more than federal statues to change them. I would welcome a discussion on this issue as vigorous and passionate as the one we have been having over a strip of middle East land that is already a desert.
37 comments ↓
Garth..as you know I have at times cheered and jeered your various posts and positions…..this particular topic is one I could write a book about….Although i happen to live in the last “true” greenbelt in the GTA where I am surrounded by country estates and horsefarms, I can emphathize with your message…as someone who also is in the industry, I understand the complexity of land development and housing…..like most things..it’s driven by money….. but that should never be an excuse for poor planning and stricter guidelines….Milton was planned for this 20 years ago when Mississauga ran out of lots…the consumer is also to blame as “price” creates the boxes….I realize that development is only a fraction of the overall environmental issue however it is a challenge…just ask Peter G….I send my best wishes to Rona and her team…they have their work cut out for them but I am confident it will be much better than the Kyoto failure…
The monster that is causing these problems in the GTA resides in Ottawa and is called Immigration Policy.
There was a time when immigration levels were geared to the state of the economy and the ability of the country to absorb them. Most immigrants were selected on a point system to imrove the probability of their success. Beginning with Mulroney, and continuing with the Liberals, immigration was increased and sponsorship began. Now over 40% of the increased immigration comes to the GTA and only about one-quarter are selected by the point system while the majority come through sponsorship.
The “We need immigration” myth is convenient for the bureaucrats, lawyers, developers, etc. who benefit from higher immigration. It is especially convenient for the politicians who want votes from the sponsoring communities. For the rest of us it is very expensive in terms of destruction of the environment, congestion and higher taxes.
The problem is easy to identify. Finding a majority of federal politicians who dare to address it seems to be much tougher.
So Gary— If we keep immigrants out,we keep our farmlands? How do we staff the jobs that get created? How does our economy grow?
Seems like too simple an answer.Immigration built this country.
I am as intrigued about this issue as I am confused. John seems to think that greed is to blame while Gary seems to think we should close our doors to people looking to enjoy the same peace and freedom we take for granted as Canadians. Even if we stopped letting others into our country and if the rural municipalities closed their borders to ’sprawlers’, the population is still growing and is still going to spill out of our urban centers. I moved to Burlington from Toronto because I couldn’t afford a home for my family in the big TO. Hell, I could barely afford one in Burlington but we moved here for a better quality of life. And now, I feel that I’ve contributed to the ‘raping’ of the land and that my rural neighbours think that I should go back to where I came from. So, what’s the answer Garth? Your country home sounds wonderful – and I’m sorry to hear that you’re going to have to share your back yard with a few thousand new neighbours that will probably pass a by-law requiring you to muffle your steed so it doesn’t wake their babies during your therapy sessions – but where am I supposed to live? Population growth is inevitable and we shouldn’t close our borders (local and national) to new opportunities, new cultures and new ideas that come with new Canadians – or existing Canadians looking for a nice place to live. It seems to me that dealing with this growth in a smart and sustainable way is the answer. What we need is leadership on a federal level… not just pandering to voters or big corporate donors… leadership. I also can not wait to hear what the big guy has to say.
I love it Garth. You do get some of the dumbest trolls.
Gary the Bigot seems to think Canada’s immigration woes started with the last Conservative Evil Empire.
It is unchecked, open-ended immigration that is the problem, not the concept itself.
Gary the Bigot is like so many trolls. Make up some ideas, treat them as fact, and develop your argument.
A bare minimum of research would show this fool the Liberal Sun King comrade Trudeau opened up immigration for purely political reasons!
Hey Garth…it’s a little off topic (first time I done that eh) but have you had a chance to look at the portrait of PMSH on page 34 of the August issue of the Reader’s Digest…he looks like a poster boy for the OutGames. What was he thinking? Guess it’s better than the shot of him shaking the hand of one of his kids as he dropped him off at elementary school. The man needs to find a new handler.
Sorry Gary, ask anyone living in a rural community why we need immigration. In small town Canada we’re seeing a dramatic decline in children, along with an increase in job vacancies and health-related costs. With the Boomers retiring en masse over the next decade our economy will feel the pinch. The fact is that Canadians are getting older (I believe Garth’s written some books which refer to this topic) and in order to stay a vibrant country we need a flow of youthful and hardworking immigrants. Having said that we really need to look at who gets to come to Canada and the return to a “common-sense, what can you do for Canada, no more political correct hoohaw” approach to immigration. I can’t believe the hoops and hurdles my British neighbours (educated, skilled, hardworking, and financially healthy) have had to go through.
Todd
Growth stops when?By its nature it cannot continue forever.Do we need more people,more jobs,more cars and more highways?
I have lived in Burlington since the mid sixties and I don’t think this area has been “improved” one bit.
Maybe if you don’t have the growth, you don’t have the jobs and you don’t need all these extra people poisoning the air we breathe and the water we drink.
Parts of Halton are really only an extention of Mississauga.I think people like Peter G have enough money.
Just remember that when you pass these new developments and get to your home don’t forget to turn up your air conditioners and conserve as much energy as you can. These new neighbourhoods will need that power to share.
Todd
For sure, there are areas of Canada – and Ontario – that would benefit from more immigration. But in 2005, 43% of Canada’s immigration came to Toronto and it has been averaging over 100,000 per year for several years. With the present target levels and sponsorship program this will continue. The following is a link to 10 year statistics. http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/pub/facts2005/permanent/18.html
Some of the best farm land in Canada in being covered with houses and cars. Infrastructure and social service costs are adding to taxes. A recent W5 episode reported that there are 1600 recent immigrants to Canada somewhere in the GTA who have been convicted of serious crimes and ordered deported – if they can be found. On the other hand, developers are doing well, immigration service providers love it, and Halton is planning a new town hall.
The whole immigration area badly needs an objective review.
Is Halton the last bastion of ‘whiteness’ in Southern Ontario? Is that what you folks are looking at defending with your ‘immigration’ comments? I wonder if the Halton police force is a representation of what you folks envision Halton should be. The HRPS is one of the whitest police forces I have seen – I know this is subjective but that is my opinion.
Sounds like like some folks here would be proponents of putting up a big wall around Halton with a big sign that says “Development Stops Here – Immigrants stay out”
Curious… will this new tree cutting law apply to developers? I would have thought that this is part of the reason why this issue was raised to begin with. If Peter G owns the land, should he have the right to do with it what he pleases? Rights to ownership? Where is the line?
Conservation, as California proved in the gas crisis, can account for a 25% reduction in energy requirements. That’s more than enough to forestall the construction of any new generation and put money back in pockets. If you pile with renewables and recyclables we shouldn’t ever have to scale too far beyond what we have, in terms of megawatts, until a new application requires serious power (e.g. wide spread adoption of electric or hydrogen cars) and then hopefully it can supplied by solar everywhere.
Garth, if you’ve got any pull at all, you need to push for a new (and I understand that Federal, Provincial and Municipal codes are seperate) building code that requires a minimum solar instalation, proper insulation and only energy-star applicances.
We don’t, as Ms. Ambrose idiotically repeats, take every car and truck off the road. We need to make sure all those cars and trucks are as fuel efficent as possible and that people learn that they can conserve without sacrificing (e.g. the next time you have to buy lightbulbs, by high effiency halogen bulbs).
Maybe when there is a major resession people will appreciate a little construction . I am all for progress only commies want to stop progress. The country wants to take in 400000 people a year so there has to be somewhere where these immagrants can live. Only other alternative is insisting all new Canadians move to Nunavut!
ok ok ok. can we get off blaming immigrants and non-immigrants. we the people are the source of our problems. however, we can also be the solution. remember the blackout a few years ago. for a few weeks everybody was practising conservation. after that, forget about it! air conditioners went higher, lights were always on, people dive miles and miles and miles to go to the big box stores to save a couple of bucks, etc, etc, etc. i beleive its an attitude. its time to change and change now. if you want solutions here is one: go visit your local green community and ask for solutions. they are a great resource for information and solutions. the local one in my area has a website: http://www.ntgc.ca . please visit them and start doing something rather than blowing hot air. you can make a difference!!
karim
As long as the masses continue to feel safe placing the bulk their net worth in property, housing construction will continue unabated and many farmers and country landowners will be more than willing to cash in.
Face it, many of these large landowners are no longer the simple ‘people of the land’, but rather the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of those folks who may now own the land, but work as professionals in downtown Toronto. Many have been waiting patiently for decades in anticipation of the ’sprawl’ finally reaching them so that they could be in a position of strength when they decided to cashed in their chips.
This is not the raping of the land, it’s simply capitalism and we should all get used to it.
We take in immigrants for a variety of purposes but the main one is that by the time a family is 3rd gernation Canadian their birth rate drops significantly and we need immigration to make up for those loss of citizens who have died and not been replaced by the the birth rate. Not everyone of them will need a new home. A good many of them will occupy the places left vacant.
Rather than feed the sprawls, why shouldn’t we lower the ecological impact of sprawl by utilizing the space we have in cities efficiently?
Let me introduce you to the NDP’s 5 part Green Agenda For Canada. It’s by far the most comprehensive plan set out by any party for addressing ghg emissions.
Now let me introduce you to the closest thing you’ll find to magic bullet solutions.
Coal must go. There is no such thing as clean coal technology and it alone accounts for a huge percentage of Canada’s ghg emissions. Get some new nuclear power station, hydroelectric or wind projects going. Our technological level is well beyond the need to use coal as a source of energy.
Curtail expansion in the Alberta tar sands. I realize Albertans will howl over this but they’re idiots who for some reason have deluded themselves into thinking all the oil must be exploited right this very minute. In addition to being the largest source of ghg emission growth in the country, the other result of this mad dash for cash is that their booming economy is already causing problems in other areas they can’t handle. So the unchecked expansion must cease; the current level of exploitation of the tar sands is more than adequate. This will help curb the growth of ghg emissions spewing from the province and future generations of Albertans will thank you for preserving some of their natural resources for them to exploit.
As for urban sprawl–gawd, haven’t we been talking about this problem for 20 years?–there really is only one solution. Disincentives must be placed on development of lowrise, single family dwellings and incentives given to development of highrise, single family dwellings. Right now it’s simply more profitable for developers to build the former, so that’s what they do.
The second thing that needs to be changed is the residential only neighbourhoods; the socalled bedroom communities. This idea is simply absurd and only encourages people to use their cars more often. All new developments should be residential/commercial and a committment on the part of commercial devolopers should be necessary before residential developers are given the green light to proceed.
Of course neither of these ideas are new and it’s likely neither will happen so we’ll just go on talking about this problem for another 20 years.
I hear you Gary, and agree. The urban areas are insanely big (I try to avoid Calgary these days and it pales by comparison to T.O.); and any immigrant who conducts a serious crime in Canada should get ONE court case and, if guilty, be deported instantly. The continual appeal process is absolutely insane and certainly profits the lawyers involved but is an affront to the majority of honest, hardworking immigrants. However the W5 episode also showed how quick we are to deport skilled workers because they didn’t follow the endless procedures to enter Canada, even though they were filling a much needed job. IIRC one Russian carpenter in Newfoundland was spotlighted, and it was particularly perplexing as to why he and his family couldn’t stay.
I think the objective review you call for is much needed, but can it be done without the government being called racist or insensitive. Perhaps the PM should create a special task force of liberals and NDP MPs to propose solutions to avoid the inevitable “slam a conservative” response. Personally I think the immigration system is just one example of how federal bureaucracies are the true political power base in Canada and seem to be beyond the influence of elected politicians. As many public servants will tell you, “If you don’t like a new mandate, just avoid the issue and bury it on your desk until the next election, then you can go about doing things as they’ve always been done.” In the W5 episode the reporter couldn’t, by any means, get an appointment to talk to that French Canadian fellow (sorry forgot his name) who really runs the Immigration Department.
PW, maybe you have Saskatchewan in mind but in much of small town Canada there’s an abundance of jobs….mostly service stuff ($8-10/hour) but also the trades. So is there a way to get immigrants to move away from the cities, and no I don’t mean Nunavut? I’ve been told that many immigrants move to urban areas to live within their familiar, ethnic community; and I’m not sure there’s any official way around that short of a point system that rewards those who intend to live outside of urban areas…like the Brits who are moving to the southeast Kootenays of BC in droves and bringing capital expidenture with them. However I can attest to the incredible hassles my British neighbours have had to work through.
Todd
Todd
I do not know why Gary is being attacked. I am a second-generation Canadian whose grandparents all came over, literally, on a boat. The country needed labour and my grandparents, along with the other immigrant groups at the time, came here with no expectations of a nanny government, did not expect existing Canadians to conform to their culture, did not expect to have a cushy job, had no idea where they would end up in this country, they spoke no English or French and were illiterate in their own language, they raised their children (my parents) to be totally Canadian – in short, they were exactly what Canada needed.
I neither speak nor desire to learn the mother tongue of my grandparents, nor do I have any desire to visit the “old country”.
The past immigrants were, as a whole, honest in their desires to come to Canada. Today’s immigrants, it appears to me, are only too willing to criticize our country, to push their own cultures and religions on us at the expense of our own.
Although I support immigration (how could I do otherwise, given my background), at this point, I would be willing to turn off the tap.
For those of you who jump on Gary, unless you are as close or closer to the boat than I am, you really have no place jumping on him. As an “ethnic” Canadian, I took no offence to what he wrote and I would certainly not brand him a “bigot”. That is such a tired, boilerplate line and it has lost its significance.
A recent news story is about countries where people are the most happy.
I noticed that the countries at the top of the list have the lowest or no population increase.
The countries at the bottom of the list have the highest rate of population growth.
People are happiest when there is little or no growth. I know I would be more happy if population growth were zero. -Daggy
Garth – aren’t you stirring the pot a little, first arguing for property rights, and now complaining about what the property owners are doing with their property? Kinda playing both sides of the fence here, aren’t you?
Let me introduce you to the NDP’s 5 part Green Agenda For Canada. It’s by far the most comprehensive plan set out by any party for addressing ghg emissions.
It doesn’t take a genius to reduce ghg emmissions by throwing the economy of one of the most propserous provinces in Canada, into the toilet or establishing Stalinistic policies that threat people like animals.
Now can you do the same thing WITHOUT telling people how you think they should live their life?
“As for urban sprawl–gawd, haven’t we been talking about this problem for 20 years?–there really is only one solution. Disincentives must be placed on development of lowrise, single family dwellings and incentives given to development of highrise, single family dwellings. Right now it’s simply more profitable for developers to build the former, so that’s what they do”
Really!….. Robert you haven’t a clue!
I am a second-generation Canadian whose grandparents all came over, literally, on a boat.
You should be thankful the Garys of Canada weren’t in charge then, otherwise your grandparents would have been told to bugger off.
One other thing, Richard. My great-grandparents immigrated to Canada so I’m only a third generation Canadian. And I’d bet that the majority of Canadians are no more than third generation Canadians so your claim of being a second generation Canadian means bugger all.
I don’t think the problems with urban sprawl and immigration levels are that cut and dry.
We do need immigration to sustain our economy and to provide humanitarian assistance. We also need to provide an economic environment where Canadian people do want to have children. For example, I’m sure many don’t have children – because they simply can’t afford them financially and don’t have the time to spend raising a family. As both parents need to work, their time is spent much on their working life, which includes the travel times as well.
Many people choose a big urban center, as there are more job opportunities. Yet, as we see Toronto area is not that condusive for a couple to raise their children – high travel time (work and children activities), high residencial costs, high demand for child care services, etc. So, in time, this can actually turn on itself and implode.
So, I would like to have the government on all levels examine the how and the where?
The feds can focus on financial incentives to locate people (could be immigrants) to low density areas; financial incentives for businesses to open in low density areas; less tax burdens on families (so that one parent can stay at home or work part time); possible incentives to work at home; basically, thinking outside the box.
The provincial and municiple government should provide legislation and financial means to encourage smaller homes and multiple unit dwellings. This also greatly helps the environment.
Another great topic, Garth. I, too, feel some sadness at seeing all of the development in my little part of the world (Western Quebec). We used to have lots of woods around here and now it’s just more and more houses. I sometimes get a glimpse of wildlife (deer, a bear cub, a couple of raccoons on my back porch once) as they somehow try to make it back to where there used to be woods…and get caught in suburbia. There certainly is no easy answer to this one.
The world will “progress” whether we want it to or not but we certainly have to start asking ourselves some serious questions (like why does a family of 4 need a 3,500 square foot house, the houses seem to be getting bigger and bigger??!!).
I am anxiously awaiting the new Conservative Party “Made in Canada” environment plan due out in the fall. I am hopeful that it will introduce policies that will actually HELP our environment here in Canada (rather than talking about it for 13 years!).
I am extremely thankful that people are finally learning the truth about the Kyoto protocol, that it is, in essence, a wealth transfer from developed (like us) to developing countries (like Russia) and does little to help with environmental issues (other than reducing CO2 emmissions of course, only 1 of the 5-6 greenhouse gases). I couldn’t have imagined a bigger waste of 8 or 9 billion dollars a year!! When a plan like this comes from the U.N., you just gotta know that it’s aim is to punish “the West” while trying to enhance “others”. Not to mention the fact that the results would have been negiligable since the 2 biggest co2 emiters, the U.S. and China, had not signed on to the accord (and never will).
I think it will be a good start to clean up our own back yard and then introduce incentives for all types of conservation to keep it that way!
I think that President Bush had the right idea when he suggested that he would invoice his citizens for their
evacuation from Lebanon. I also believe that dual citizenship needs to be revisited in this country.
Keep up the very good work, your efforts are appreciated and I promise with your next campaign, I will
make every effort to get more involved and volunteer more of my time.
Regards,
Catherine P.
Keep up the good work. You are really hitting the right buttons! Regards, John C.
Mr Turner,
Thank you for speaking on the issue of Canadians living in Lebanon paying there own fare back to Canada. You are voiceing the thoughts on many Canadians on this and other issues and hope the attitude’s of those who for whatever reason disagree with you will not stop you voiceing your opinion in the future.
Rory R. M.
Burlington Ont
Really what a stupid topic why not talk about the Justice system and this peter whitmore fella. I remember a few years ago this guys name came up in Ontario,now he has abducted 2 boys out west. There is nothing sadder than that for those poor parents, we can thank our Liberal justice system. They should of hung the guy years ago.
I am impressed with your stand on the many issues I have read about in the Beaver.
I hope that you will be able to accomplish some of the things that you have taken a stand on and be able to be re-elected to continue after the next election to continue your work. We need more MPs with your insight and willingness to speak out and take action..
Sincerely,
George H. C.
Oakville, ON
Another consequence of high growth forced on the GTA?? There is an old saying that “If you really want to get out of the hole, the first thing you should do is quit digging”.
Ajax Mayor says Di Ianni charges are proof of need for election reform
CATCH, July 30, 2006
Ajax Mayor, Steve Parish, has written to the Provincial government urging reform of the Municipal Elections Act, and citing the charges against Mayor Di Ianni (Hamilton) as evidence of the widespread domination of municipal governments by developers.
In a July 20 letter to the Minister of Municipal Affairs, John Gerretson, Parish decries numerous abuses and violations of the Municipal Elections Act and says that “what took place in the Di Ianni case is not unique but was repeated on numerous occasions throughout the GTA and beyond”.
Sorry Robert – I think you missed Gary’s and my points. I doubt if Gary would have refused my grandparents – at the time we needed immigrants for labour and my grandparents were willing to do anything – no matter where or for what pay – they were grateful to be here. Amazingly, they built modest fortunes starting with nothing. Our system no longer gears itself to bringing in immigrants to fill specific needs – they end up in our major urban centers where they languish.
Furthermore, there is no need to use terms such as “bugger all” in a public blog. I also do not see the significance of your somewhat insulting reference to my generational place – it is totally irrelevant. Furthermore – I believe that we have a significant population whose ancestors came here in the 1700s and 1800s – that would make them more than 3rd generation.
Oh, and Robert, judging from your last name, I would not consider you to be descended from ethnic immigrants – the British and French took this country over from the Native Peoples. The rest of us were the second interlopers.
a few years ago, Guelph, a city not far from where I live bagan a search for a new landfill. Suddenly each and every acre of farmland became a sacred trust. Now Guelph is one of the fastest growing cities in Canada with hundreds, if not thousands, of acres being turned into tract housing. You could, quite literally have developed dozens of landfills, on the land being paved over to create new suburbs. Sadly the garbage issue is still to be worked out.