Town, Lord Mayor respond to Bill 23 concerns – Dec. 7, 2022 Niagara-on-the-Lake Local article
A Dec. 7, 2022 Niagara-on-the-Lake Local article by Penny Coles is entitled: “Town, Lord Mayor respond to Bill 23 concerns.”
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An excerpt reads:
Residents have been reaching out to [Lord Mayor Gary Zalepa] to ask how the town is responding to Bill 23, about issues such as possible development in the Greenbelt areas of NOTL and other concerns, “and they seem pleased to hear the response from the municipality, and also from AMO [Association of Municipalities of Ontario].”
He says the province seems to be expressing a willingness to talk through some of the issues with AMO, and there have been some back-and-forth conversations.
Zalepa says he believes there will be an opportunity to work out some of the concerns, including mangement of heritage assets. At this point, it’s a matter of waiting to hear back from the province with its response to the town and regional comments, Zalepa says, “and then consider the next steps.”
The wider topic is land use decision making. That’s a broad topic.
With regard to the topic, a Dec. 8, 2022 CBC article is entitled: “Ontario real estate regulator ineffective at protecting homebuyers, sellers, audit finds: RECO ‘not delivering on its mandate by a long shot,’ says expert.”
An excerpt reads:
Furthermore, in Ontario, real estate agents or brokers are allowed to represent both a buyer and seller in a single real estate transaction — a practice commonly referred to as double-ending, which has long been criticized for its inherent conflict of interest. It has been banned in some other provinces, including Quebec and B.C. In Alberta, agents cannot negotiate for both sides.
As for Haider, the industry expert, he believes outside oversight of RECO is needed to ensure the auditor general’s recommendations are addressed quickly. He suggests a task force made up of representatives from real estate, academic and consumer groups.
The wider topic, as I note, is land use decision making. That’s a broad topic.
It’s a topic I first became alerted to about a decade ago when I was attending and occasionally taking part in land use hearings in Toronto. A related topic is language usage it being the case that on occasion, such as at some land use hearings, power speaks its own language whereby up is down, in is out, and big is small.
Local land use decision making is part of the scenario that I became aware of. For over a decade, I’ve also been reading about and pondering military history including the history of the British empire; the world history of settler colonialism; and the world history of Indigenous peoples, nations, and cultures. The worldwide history of eugenics, genocide, and mass murder is inevitably part of the above-noted histories. Climate change, pandemics, and the worldwide loss of wetlands and habitats are also integral features of the land use narrative.
The story does not end with practical matters regarding land use; or, to state the matter in another way, language usage – the role which metaphors play in positioning of messages, concepts, and decision making, for example – is also a central feature. Language usage on one level is something abstract; on another level, it has consequences which in practice are crucial; they tend to determine who lives and who dies, in particular situations in the past, present, and future.
A Dec. 8, 2022 CBC article is entitled: “‘The fight is on to protect urban wildlife in Montreal’: Local ecologists say city green spaces need to be a habitat for native species and a sponge for rainwater.”
An excerpt reads:
Volunteers like Breier are vital to Montreal’s urban biodiversity, according to local ecologists who hope the attention from the city hosting COP15 this month will lead to the expansion of more green spaces on its territory, and more citizen involvement in maintaining them.
They want officials around the world to understand the importance of supporting wildlife — not just outside of cities, but within them as well.