How to preserve pastoral landscapes, like this one in Mulmur, is the subject of debate between opponents and proponents of Greenbelt expansion. Photo/DAN PELTON The merits of the Ontario government's 1.8-million acre Greenbelt were debated in Mono Centre on Saturday, as the Mono Mulmur Citizens Coalition (MC2) staged a Growing the Greenbelt meeting which, in the words of meeting chair Harvey Kolodney, was meant to be "an educational event."

At issue was the Queens Park proposal that the Greenbelt — established in 2005 to protect environmentally sensitive and agricultural land in the Golden Horseshoe area of Southern Ontario — be expanded by about 1.2 million acres. Almost all of Mulmur and most of Mono would be included in the expansion, as well as large parts of Simcoe County.

While expressing some disappointment that the focus of the meeting shifted from the proposed Greenbelt expansion and leaned towards the merits of its very existence, Mr. Kolodney felt the meeting was beneficial insofar as it presented its attendees with distinct and different points of view.

He also held out the possibility that MC2 might arrange a follow-up meeting on the same issue.

Those on hand for the event heard arguments from both proponents of the expansion and others who feel the existing Greenbelt is just another bureaucratic burden on local landowners and doesn't serve any useful purpose.

The panel included expansion proponent Heather Harding of Toronto-based Environmental Defence, which she said is one of about 80 "watchdog groups" that compose the Ontario Greenbelt Alliance.

She argued such an expansion is necessary because "saving bits and parcels of land doesn't work. We need to be saving corridors."

Mulmur township planner Ron Mills, also on the panel, suggested the Greenbelt Act was an "initiative that was inevitable because of environmental paranoia." He pointed to a recent Environics poll that showed 90 per cent of urbancentred respondents supporting the Greenbelt. But of those supporters, Mr. Mills said, the poll showed only one-third truly understood what the Greenbelt was all about.

On the other hand, he said, the poll determined that 80 per cent of rural respondents are aware of the provisions in the Greenbelt Act. He said the poll did not ask these particular respondents what they thought of the initiative.

He also posed a rhetorical question. What would be solved by an expanded Greenbelt that isn't already being taken care of by existing municipal plans?

"You bought into this area because it's really nice," he reasoned to the audience. "Who made this area really nice? It wasn't the Greenbelt. It was the people who have been the stewards of this land for the last 150 years."

Contending that Mulmur is probably in the most natural state, right now, than it has been in the last 100 years, Mr. Mills said: "The difference between the Greenbelt plan and what is done locally is that we don't say 'you can't do this.' Instead, we will say 'we could let you do this, as long as you do it right.'"

Ms. Harding countered: "Those of you who say they can take care of things locally, I implore you to go to Durham region. It was once as nice (as the Mono Mulmur area), but now it's subdivision after subdivision. The Greenbelt is a long-term plan to preserve."

In a later interview, she suggested that it is often the case where one particular municipality might not be as environmentally conscious as another one nearby. She pointed to the relatively large-scale housing development in Innisfil, in Simcoe County, as an example.

"Any development, that happens just outside your borders, matters," said Ms. Harding.

The other panel members Saturday were Victor Doyle of the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, Kathryn Pounder of the Niagara Escarpment Commission, and Mono farmer Gerald Reid.

Mr. Doyle, the ministry's manager of community planning and development for central Ontario, stressed the need for farmland protection by pointing out that 50 per cent of Canada's class one agricultural land is situated in southern Ontario.

"There are currently 8 million people in the Golden Horseshoe and we're growing by 100,000 a year," Mr. Doyle told the audience. "Southern Ontario is expected to have a population of 11.5 million people by 2031 with 25,000 more in Dufferin County."

Thus, the pressure to build homes on agricultural land will be intense and Mr. Doyle contends that an expanded Greenbelt will preserve farmland.

Mr. Reid did not paint an optimistic picture of the family farm. His Mono farm is one of a dwindling breed, he maintained, saying that he knows of only nine potato growers in the area, compared with 75 in 1960. As late as 15 years ago, Mr. Reid could count 40 area dairy farms. Now, in the same area, he can only count 10.

He places some of the blame for the vanishing agricultural industry on interference from governments that "don't worry about the family farm. They worry about being elected."

Specifically, he used an example where, in times of financial stress, a farmer could sell off a parcel of his land to catch up. The Greenbelt, he said, would forbid a farmer from doing that.

"With more Greenbelt," summarized Mr. Reid, "there will be a lot more bureaucrats and a lot less property rights."