During the 18 September "Meet the Candidates" in Orangeville, Liberal Betsy Hall cited the Places to Grow Act and the Greenbelt as examples of her party's attempts to control growth.

The Places to Grow Act imposes a population increase of 29,000 on Dufferin County. As Orangeville and Shelburne are approaching their maximum populations (because of water and sewage limitations), the bulk of those new inhabitants will be housed in the agricultural parts of the county, effectively doubling the rural population by 2031.

The two-year-old Greenbelt covers the Niagara Escarpment of Mono and Mulmur and all of Orangeville; it does not protect from development most of Dufferin County's farmland. It has been rumoured that the Liberal government froze severances throughout the province, but neither that move nor the Greenbelt has prevented recent construction, for example, of at least one house on a severed piece of farmland in the past month.

The recently enacted provincial laws governing development, gravel pits, etc (eg, the Municipal Act, the Provincial Policy Act) are seriously flawed. Many restrictive paragraphs are followed by other paragraphs that remove the restrictions. They might have been written by developers.

Methinks the Liberal candidate doth protest a bit too much.

Charles Hooker

Orangeville