David Crombie, six others, resign from Greenbelt Council opposing new rules

Seven members of Premier Doug Ford’s “Greenbelt Council”, including the chair David Crombie, have resigned in protest of the government’s budget bill that was tabled last month.

On Saturday Crombie released his letter of resignation, citing that he would be stepping down immediately due to the proposed Schedule 6 from Bill 229 being a “high-level bombing and needs to be resisted.”

Today, six more members of the council followed the former mayor of Toronto’s lead and resigned as well.

The new legislation was made to help the province bounce back from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the bill would strip power from local conservation authorities and hand it over to ministerial authorities to open the greenbelt for development. Critics say this will decrease the opportunity to look at the natural boundaries of the Greenbelt which can impact water quality, water quantity and wetlands. It will ultimately hurt the conservation authorities’ ability to ensure development in flood plans happen safely.

The final debate against the bill begins on Monday and Member of Provincial Parliament of Hamilton West-Ancaster-Dundas Sandy Shaw told CHCH News today that all members of the NDP will fight against it.

“I think what people are shocked by is that such a high profile guy (Crombie) who is also a conservative … when he speaks like this and it’s a complete condemnation of this government’s attack on the greenbelt, people take notice,” said Shaw.

Shaw implores anyone with concerns to contact their local members of provincial parliament, especially those in the Conservative party.