Promised Land

Doug Ford’s recent U-turn decision to earmark swaths of the Greenbelt for development prompted widespread outrage—plus pockets of praise—across the GTA. But what do the people who live and work on the land think about it?

- CHRISTOPHER KATSAROV LUNA

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.