Item - 2011.PG3.1

This report responds to a request from the Parks and Environment Committee to identify City and Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) owned lands within river valley connections identified in the Provincial Greenbelt Plan that may be suitable for designation as part of the Provincial Greenbelt Plan and examine the implications for City and TRCA recreational uses, facilities and infrastructure.

The Provincial Greenbelt Plan is one of the cornerstones of growth management in the Greater Golden Horseshoe. The Provincial Greenbelt Plan (2005) identifies 1.8 million acres (728,500 hectares) of land where urbanization should not occur in order to provide permanent protection to the agricultural land base and to the ecological features and functions occurring within this landscape. The Greenbelt Plan plays an essential role in protecting valuable agricultural lands and natural heritage and water resource systems for future generations in one of the fastest growing regions in North America. The Greenbelt Plan also identifies external river valley connections, which are outside the regulated area of the Greenbelt, but which provide important connections between the Greenbelt Plan's natural heritage system and Lake Ontario. The Greenbelt Plan and the Greenbelt boundary were established under the Greenbelt Act (2005). In 2008, the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing identified criteria and a process for considering municipal requests to expand the existing Greenbelt. 

City and TRCA owned lands within river valley connections located in Toronto (Don and Humber Rivers and Etobicoke and Morningside Creeks) that meet provincial criteria for growing the Greenbelt were identified and reviewed to determine the implications of applying Greenbelt Plan policies to City and TRCA recreational uses, facilities and infrastructure. It was determined that the Greenbelt Plan policies that would apply to these lands, if they were designated as part of the Greenbelt Plan area, were designed to protect ecological features and functions that occur within the rural landscape. They were not intended to apply to river valleys that flow through urbanized areas and thus do not take into account some of the uses that must coexist within urban river valleys in Toronto. As a result, it would be inappropriate to expand the Provincial Greenbelt Plan area to include river valleys within the City of Toronto at this time.

External river valley connections are important to the long-term health of the Greenbelt's natural heritage system. The Greenbelt Plan policies that apply to these external river valley connections and the role that municipalities can play in protecting these important connections should be clarified as part of the 10 year review of the Greenbelt Plan that will take place in 2015.