Ford government taken to court over Hamilton boundary changes

An environmental group has launched a court challenge against Ontario’s decision to force Hamilton to expand its urban boundary, to build more homes.

Ecojustice on behalf of Environmental Defence are arguing the province’s decision to expand its urban boundary is unreasonable.

This comes after the Ford government announced a plan to build at least 50,000 new homes on more than a dozen tracts of land now in the Greenbelt, while adding around 2,000 acres of protected land elsewhere.

READ MORE: City staff oppose Ford government’s plan to build 1.5M homes on Greenbelt land

Ecojustice’s Laura Bowman alleges the minister’s decision to expand the boundary by 2,200 hectares is unreasonable, arguing that it violates parts of other provincial acts.

Laura Bowman told CHCH that she knows that there is a lot of discussion about housing. 

“The city of Hamilton did an analysis that showed it could accommodate all of the anticipated housing needs within the existing boundary of Hamilton – no green space needed to be used for that purpose.”

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