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Protesters converge on MPP's office over controversial housing bill

Linda Kulkarni was among the approximately 80 people who took part in Saturday's protest in Smiths Falls against Bill 23.  (Guy Quenneville/CBC - image credit)
Linda Kulkarni was among the approximately 80 people who took part in Saturday's protest in Smiths Falls against Bill 23. (Guy Quenneville/CBC - image credit)

Linda Kulkarni lives in what she describes as wonderful countryside full of wetlands.

"It's a habitat for endangered species," said the Township of Montague resident. "We've got Blanding's turtles [that] come to our doorstep every year, [plus] many different varieties of frogs.

"We need to preserve this for the future."

Kulkarni was one of approximately 80 demonstrators — plus at least one dog with his own protest sign — who picketed Saturday outside the Smiths Falls, Ont., constituency office of Lanark–Frontenac–Kingston MPP John Jordan over the controversial Bill 23.

Known as the More Homes Built Faster Act, Bill 23 is the province's attempt to significantly boost Ontario's housing stock. The Progressive Conservative government has promised to build 1.5 million homes in 10 years, including 151,000 in Ottawa alone.

Environmental advocates are concerned the legislation, which still needs to undergo a third and final reading before taking effect, could see some wetlands re-mapped for development.

Conservation authorities interpret the bill to mean they will no longer be allowed to help municipalities review development applications — a decades-long practice they say lets municipalities tap into pooled technical expertise that might be costly to do in-house.

"It's downloading so many costs to the residents," Kulkarni said.

Guy Quenneville/CBC
Guy Quenneville/CBC

"That's why we have the conservation authority," echoed fellow demonstrator Eva Leon, who held a sign depicting Premier Doug Ford as "the Grinch of green spaces."

Leon travelled to the rally from the cottage community of Chaffey's Lock, Ont., roughly 30 kilometres south of Smiths Falls in the Township of Rideau Lakes.

"This bill really quashes [the conservation authorities'] ability to help the township in deciding what areas should not be touched, or how they should be developed if they are going to be developed," Leon said.

One of several protests

The protest was co-organized by Anita Payne, a retired schoolteacher who has sought a Kingston-area MPP seat for the Green Party in recent elections.

Other organizers included conservation-minded singer-songwriter Sarah Harmer, who is originally from Burlington, Ont., and a regional advocacy group called Climate Network Lanark.

It was one of several Bill 23 protests held in the province Saturday, including one in Ottawa that had a much smaller showing.

"Lanark County is home to some of the largest, last remaining wetlands in the whole of southern Ontario," said Susan Brandum, Climate Network Lanark's co-founder, addressing the crowd at a park before they departed for their hour-long protest.

"The key thing that they do right now in terms of the climate issue is they sequester carbon," she said. "We need to keep our wetlands."

Guy Quenneville/CBC
Guy Quenneville/CBC

Harmer said while the third and final reading of the bill could be coming soon, "shovels won't be in the ground for a while."

"We need to continually push our MPPs, especially our Conservative MPPs," she told the group.

Harmer said Jordan's office initially promised her a pre-protest meeting to discuss the bill but then said he was unavailable.

CBC reached out to Jordan's constituency office on Saturday morning for comment about the protest and had not received a response by the evening.

Guy Quenneville/CBC
Guy Quenneville/CBC