Between 1998 and 2022, the Commission for the Protection of Agricultural Territory of Quebec authorized 74% of the 38,000 rezoning requests. In fifteen years, between 2006 and 2021, 63,000 hectares of land ceased to be cultivated, the equivalent of 1.3 times the surface area of the island of Montreal.
All this was done without the slightest politician being forced to resign and without the slightest significant demonstration being organized to denounce this squandering of Quebec’s agricultural capital, most often with the aim of promoting urban sprawl and allowing farmland owners to make a huge money grab by seeing the value of their rezoned land increase by 20 times instantly.
In recent weeks, three Ontario ministers have had to resign: Steve Clark, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, Kaleed Rasheed, Minister of Public and Business Services, and Monte McNaughton, Minister of Labor and Immigration. They were forced to do this because they were involved in the rezoning of 3,000 hectares of Toronto’s greenbelt in order to allow the construction of 50,000 housing units.
These resignations were caused by the outcry raised by the announcement that the Ford government would proceed with the amputation of 3,000 hectares of Toronto’s greenbelt, created in 2005, and covering an area of more than 800,000 hectares, of which the 3000 hectares subtracted represented only a tiny 0.38%.
Those who were proud of the existence in Quebec of a Commission for the Protection of Agricultural Land have reason to blush with shame today in the face of the incredible contrast between the determination of Ontarians to protect green spaces and the laxity of Quebecers , who have so far relied on the “wisdom” of their Commission.
Having recently carried out a study comparing urban sprawl in Toronto and Montreal using the urban metric system, I was surprised to note that the “patropolitan” area (this area encompassing both the first, second and third third ring of urban centers considered) of Toronto was significantly smaller than that of Montreal.
While the population of the metropolis of Toronto is 79% larger than that of Montreal in 2021 (8,495,600 inhabitants compared to 4,743,200 inhabitants), according to our calculations, it only occupies an area equivalent to 92 .3% of that of Montreal (18,640 km2 compared to 20,198 km2 for Montreal), so much so that the density of the Toronto metropolitan area represents 194% of that of its competitor.
Obviously, thanks to its greenbelt and the deep attachment of Torontonians to it, the Toronto hub clearly controls its urban sprawl much better than its Montreal competitor and the use of greenbelts is a thousand times more effective in this regard. than all the “commissions for the protection of agricultural land” that one could imagine. Isn’t it finally time to realize this, if it’s not already too late?