Protect the Greenbelt
Protect the Waterfalls

What are Ecosystem Services?

As per a Friends of the Greenbelt study, the Greenbelt provides $3.2 billion per year in ecological services to Ontarians.

Examples of ecosystem services:

    • Water filtration
    • Flood control
    • Climate stabilization
    • Water treatment
    • Wildlife habitat 
    • Recreation

 

Green Party Solutions: Support Ontario’s Natural Sector

  • Freeze urban boundaries
  • Expand the Greenbelt to include a Bluebelt that protects Ontario’s lakes, rivers and wetlands (and waterfalls!)
  • Properly recognise the value of farms, forests and wetlands for climate control
  • Establish a Food Belt to permanently prime farmland in Ontario
  • Invest in local food hubs to support local farmers, supply chains and businesses 
  • Create an AgTech Innovation Fund
  • Pay farmers for programs that produce, enhance and maintain ecosystem services 
  • Increase funding for risk management programs by $150 million annually
  • Reverse the backsliding on environmental protections, wetland preservation and conservation authorities
  • Prohibit 400 series highways in the Greenbelt and cancel Highway 413
  • Create policies that support the retention of family-owned farms and succession to a younger generation of farmers