Background
Specific Issues: Co-ordinated Review: Shaping Land Use in the Greater Golden Horseshoe Workshop in OPPI 2016 Conference
The Golden Horseshoe Area is identified through the literature in this part because of its special economic status in the province. The province of Ontario initiated a coordinated review of the provincial four plans in 2015. Members of the public, stakeholders, municipalities and organizations provided feedback on how the plans are preforming and how they may be improved (MMAH., 2016a). To support the co-ordinated review, Ontario appointed a panel, chaired by David Crombie, to develop recommendations on how to amend and improve the plans. The Panel has completed its work and submitted the report Planning for Health, Prosperity and Growth in the Greater Golden Horseshoe: 2015 – 2041 (MMAH., 2015). One year later, the updated 2016 Proposed Greenbelt Plan was issued on May 2016, and asked for public consultation again until end of Oct 2016.
I have attended the workshop of discussing the reviewing process of the Plan and thus have a reflection on this topic. I will go through the review process of the coordinated land use planning in Greenbelt Plan and take City of Hamilton as a case study.
History of the Greenbelt Plan
Greenbelt Plan is one of the key plans and plays a very important role in agricultural land preservation, water resources protection and natural heritages. The draft Plan was released in 2004 and required comments from public and
An important part of this model was to divide the Champion lands into separate but complementary ownerships on the basis of ecological values and basic management purposes: areas with the greatest ecological significance would be publicly owned and protected, with timber harvesting precluded on substantial acreages to allow natural processes like forest succession to occur unimpeded; and the most productive timber lands, with fewer special ecological values, would be kept in private ownership with a requirement that they be managed for long-term sustainable forestry. Public access for a variety of historic uses and other activities would be guaranteed on the entirety of the property.
Course Exclusions: This is an Upper Level Liberal Studies. The course is not available to students in the Geographic Analysis Program and in the Urban and Regional Planning Program
Grand Cache was previously known for its coal wealth between 1969 until 2014. Mass employment saw in the flux of migrants and hundreds of families settled in Grand Cache. By the end of 2011, the town had over 4,000 populations. The community grew as a result of economic development around Coal. Before 2014, Grand Cache was called the coal engine of Alberta. However, within the last three years, the story had changed. The majority of the working class, are migrating off the town. Development has started declining so fast. Today, the community is seeking provincial approval to be absorbed into a larger municipality. Was there a war in the city? No! The single-resource that brought the city together for over 35 years is now
There is emphasis on the responsibility that planners must serve the interest of the public through techniques that inform and structure debates and foster understanding (OPPI, n.d.). Members should respect the diversity of needs and values of the public while providing clear and accurate information on planning matters. These sections also cover the consequences on the natural and built environment. Through the planner’s action it is evident that he has neglected the interest of the public and has put the values of the developer first by presenting limited information. The planner did not foster understanding by providing clear and accurate information. Instead the information provided was vague and was not accurately represented since affects were not covered adequately in terms of the long-term consequences. Section 2.7 to 2.9 in the CIP addresses the fact that planners are responsible for disclosing full information when possible conflict of interest arise (OPPI, n.d.). In this case the developer and their proposed development and the public and the adjacent environmentally sensitive area created a conflict of interest. the conflict of interest was that the developer wanted to develop a community that aligns with their proposed plan whereas existing residents wanted to change the proposed plan to protect the forest. Since a conflict of interest arose the planner was responsible for
The most important thing to know about the DND’s Environment Department is that it lacks funding because, when it comes to the Canadian Government, it is not of main concern. The Canadian Government is focused too much on short term issues and not focused enough on long term issues such as
The Alberta Oil Sands have affected many stakeholder groups such as government, residents, researchers and employees. However, we will focus on how it affects the Alberta Government; specifically, Ed Stlemech of the Conservative Government. As my stake holder, Ed Stlemech does not live within the Alberta Oil Sands area as well as have any direct relevance to it, I will instead examine how it has affects the citizens of Alberta and more importantly, those who live in and near the Fort Chipewyan area. In this way, the environmental, the economical as well as the societal impacts will impact Albertan voters and therefore impact the Conservative Government in way of the Alberta General Election.
The no purchase option in the socio-economic section had suggested that the economic use of the land be on assumption. Also that there were no figures to determine the economic impact; however, if assumptions were made to the economic use there should be at least theoretical figures to develop an economic impact. The tax revenue for the county is also assumed to stay the same; however, if the land was to be developed by a private citizen the value of the land would increase and in turn the tax levy (Brooks, 2006). In the EA prior to the socio-economic assessment it is suggested that the tax revenue could increase due to development (Vinkey, 2006) in contradiction with each other.
One of the largest contributors to a high ecological footprint is related to personal transportation and the construction, maintenance and operations of buildings3. When more people are living in an area, the amount of energy and transportation needed decreases and so does the area’s ecological footprint3. This occurs because as walking increases, the amount of personal driving decreases. Another way Vancouver is working to reduce its ecological footprint is by protecting land in the “Green Zone”7.
55% of Canada’s trade balance in 2006, with a value of 21.8 billion Canadian dollars, was from forest products (Martin, 2012). Canadian government policies are used to pursue social, economic, and environmental goals (Martin, 2012). This includes regional development, job creation, community stability, the conservation of forests, and ecosystem protection (Martin, 2012). While each province has different policies, the overall goals are quite similar. In the late 1980’s there were two changes that led to much greater forest sustainability. An agreement from 1985-1990 named the Canada-British Columbia Forest Resource Development agreement led to a significant increase in funding (Brown, 1997). The funding was used for forest renewal research and reforestation of areas that had previously been improperly stocked (Brown, 1997). In 1987 the responsibility of covering the cost and regenerating the forests after harvest was traded off from the government to the forest industry (Brown, 1997). According to Robert G. Brown, manager of Silviculture Practices at the Forest Practices branch of the BC government, the two changes
Extending from the Atlantic in the east, to the Pacific in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean, Canada is one of the most prosperous nations on Earth. This prosperity is represented by the voice that every citizen possesses thanks to the forefathers of Canada and the guaranteed rights and opportunities that the people of Canada rely on. As a nation, the pride, opportunity and freedom is not all Canada has to offer. Further, the natural beauty of Canada’s vast and beautiful lands come from various environments such as the Rocky Mountains, the tundra in the Arctic, and the farmland in the prairie's. In the great white North, having access to a universal healthcare system, celebrating cultural diversity of the people and the
These two regions offer unique opportunities for more innovative and creative forms of economic development. North-eastern Ontario has a larger population than the North-western Ontario since it’s closely tied to mining. Whereas, North-western Ontario is closely tied to forestry therefore experiencing a lesser population. The economy in the North-western Ontario faced a downturn during the forest sector crisis with the region outside of Thunder Bay bearing the brunt of the employment and population adjustment. The North-eastern has been sustained by its mining sector , however there is a redistribution of population towards the five largest urban centres including Greater Sudbury, Thunder Bay, Sault Ste. Marie , North Bay (53,966),
This process involves one that is “committee-based and bring[s] together stakeholders in Aboriginal health such as Aboriginal organizations and federal and provincial government departments” ("Looking for Aboriginal Health," 2011, p. 31). Ontario and British Columbia are the leaders in this work (Lavoie, 2013). Ontario developed the Aboriginal Health and Wellness Strategy in 1994, which is managed by a joint committee consisting of representatives from the eight umbrella Aboriginal organizations in Ontario as well as members of several government ministries and departments ("Looking for Aboriginal Health," 2011). Intended to provide a new governance structure for First Nations health services, British Columbia has developed the Tripartite First Nations policy framework that is made up of the Transformative Change Accord and the First Nations Health Plan (Lavoie, 2013; ("Looking for Aboriginal Health," 2011). Other provinces, particularly in northern regions, have developed inter-tribal authorities that are federally and provincially funded. These models of First Nations healthcare are a step in the right direction, but they also add additional complexities causing “jurisdictional boundaries [to] continue to shift and blur over time” (Lavoie & Gervais,
While the plan appears to be thorough and complete, this very characteristic may also prove to be a weakness. As sustainable technologies and even planning methodologies improve, a plan as cohesive as the current Portland Plan may leave little breathing room to accommodate the integration of future improvements without large investments and comprehensive re-planning. In addition, plans as comprehensive as this one is tend to leave less room for the creative expression, which adds diversity and charm to the cities neighborhoods. In terms of raw efficiency, the choice to make this plan a joint effort between the city government and the citizens themselves, though a noble cause, can cause each step to take much longer, and even the delay of the project in its entirety due to the volatility of entire populations. One final risk of the plan, is the risk associated with time. As any program needs money to continue on, people must continue to vote for the Portland Plan’s various programs over the years in order for them to maintain funding, so that they may continue bringing about the sustainable Portland as exists within the plan. The plan is to take place over 25-years, over the course of which any number of variables may change. The issue is things may change over the course of those 25-years, that could cause people to lose support for the plans various programs. Likewise, over
Due to the vast physical diversity in our country, there are many different natural resources available ranging from oil to fish to minerals. Canada is number 4 on the list of countries with the most natural resources; it has 33.2 trillion dollars worth of natural resources. The interior plains have a rich source of salt, oil and natural gas. The revenue from oil was about 2.5 billion dollars in 2016 in Alberta. The Great Lakes-St.Lawrence Lowlands has an industry of hydroelectricity and agriculture. The soil is very rich and good for farming. The great lakes and the St. Lawrence River also provides a source of fish and fresh water which is exported. Hudson Bay and Arctic Lowlands has a lot of different kinds of natural resources (e.g., forestry, hydroelectricity and natural gas) due to the physical diversity. Most of the economy in this region comes from mining ( over 100 million dollars in revenues). It’s very important for us to try to preserve the physical diversity of our country because as we can see our economy is greatly affected by it. We have most of our natural resources because of how different our land is in
Ontario has its own creative and effective strategies to combat climate change. One of Ontario’s goal is a low-carbon future. To accomplish this the province started making carbon reductions in 1990 and are on track to reduce carbon emissions by 15% in 2020, 37 per cent in 2030 and 80 per cent in 2050 (Climate Change Action Plan, 2017). Ontario’s target of reducing emissions by 6% was met on schedule in 2014 (Climate Change Action Plan, 2017). One of the reasons this has been made possible is because of Ontario’s investment in carbon reduction. For example, in 2015 Ontario committed $325-million payment to Ontario’s Green Investment Fund to support programs that help households and businesses implement