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Ontarians' lifestyle to be hurt by population growth: report

Lee Greenberg
The Ottawa Citizen


November 2, 2005


TORONTO - Ontarians' lifestyles will radically decline if the province does nothing to prepare for a projected population growth of four million people over the next 25 years, environmental commissioner Gord Miller said yesterday.

Such an influx of new citizens, the bulk of whom will settle in the Greater Toronto Area, would mean more pollution and sprawl, less fresh water reserves and "undeterminable storm water and sewage impacts," Mr. Miller said.

"The environmental impacts of this magnitude of growth ... will compromise the quality of our lifestyle to a stage where it will be unrecognizable," he told reporters at a Queen's Park press conference. "We already have trouble dealing with our waste right now at the centre. What about another four million tonnes a year? What about another four million cars?"

Mr. Miller said his 2005 report, titled Planning Our Landscape, was an attempt to open a rational discussion about population planning.

However, he was forced to defend himself against charges the report was anti-immigration.

"That's far too simplistic an analysis. I don't agree."

Ontario's population growth should be directed away from Toronto, he said, toward less populated parts of the province or the country.

Mr. Miller lauded many of the government's planning initiatives, but criticized the choice to exempt infrastructure from protected lands. The provincial policy statement requires municipalities to make available sufficient lands to accommodate growth for 20 years.

Under the definition of development, highways, sewage and water systems, transmission lines and electrical power facilities can all be built on natural heritage lands. That puts woodlands, wetlands, wildlife and water quality at risk.

Infrastructure Minister David Caplan chose to focus on the positive. "I can tell you that the kind of support for the growth plan we are bringing forward is tremendous and we are going to move forward with it."