‘Evidence matters': Greenbelt coalition puts science above ideology

Hamilton Spectator

29-04-2025

Few warnings have the impact and clarity like the one that can be found on the last page of the Simcoe County Greenbelt Coalition's (SCGC) information package that promotes the benefits of expanding the Greenbelt.
'Ultimately, what happens to our environment happens as well to us and our community,' it says.
In one short sentence, the local organization has attempted to cut through all of the clutter to deliver what the boxing world would call 'the knockout punch' — a claim so direct and accurate, there's virtually no room to debate it.
At an education/information session Sunday afternoon, presented by the Facebook group Engaging Residents of Oro-Medonte and held at the Oro-Medonte Community Arena, a few dozen area residents turned out to hear what they can do to ensure the long-term health of their communities, watersheds and local agricultural systems.
'We're here as part of a four-part series about how the Greenbelt can be beneficial to water security in Simcoe County,' said Margaret Prophet, executive director of SCGC. 'This is the second event. We had one in Tiny Township about two weeks ago and we're going to have another one in Alliston and then up towards Clearview.
'We're talking specifically about the Oro Moraine and how important it is, not only to the residents of Oro-Medonte but to the greater water security in Simcoe County and how we can make sure that we can have places that provide our water, feed our farms, provide us with recreation and tourism dollars and make sure our communities are livable,' she added.
Rather than direct the conversation with traditional talking points, the organizers of the afternoon session put the direction and onus of the conversation on those who attended.
Prophet and her session 'facilitators' encouraged the residents to share their values, their vision and their concerns.
'We find that residents really know their communities best,' Prophet said. 'We're trying to have a conversation about how the Greenbelt can be beneficial for them to kind of cue into their own concerns about water security.'
At one of the 'break-out' tables, the discussion ranged from how folks got their water, the value of wetlands in the community and the impacts of aggregate mining to the urbanization of rural areas.
Discussing these topics, and others, allowed residents to keep their concerns top of mind so when the Greenbelt's 10-year statutory review is held sometime later this year, they'll have their input prepared and ready to go.
According to Prophet, when the last review was done, the province designated Simcoe County as a high priority for Greenbelt expansion because urbanization was threatening water security.
'Growth pressures were kind of overwhelming the water table and it was written about in various reports,' Prophet said. 'So that was a proposal that was trying to figure out how do we keep the moraine and the watershed, the rivers and the wetlands, all of those things, healthy and still have room for housing.
'It's a balancing act versus an erasure of one over the other,' she added.
Understanding there are competing priorities at work is essential to building the right plan, Prophet said, but it only works if everyone is using the same factual information.
She said facts, not ideology, are the keys to success.
'The government's responsibility really should be 'we're making decisions based on the evidence,'' Prophet said. 'There has been this feeling of, you know, governments lie. I don't know if they necessarily lie, but at the same time, we have forgotten that evidence matters.'
She compared the government's actions to an individual making an insurance claim after a car crash.
'If you make a claim, you have to tell them what the value of the vehicle is, how badly damaged it is and you have to have receipts to back it up,' Prophet said. 'We need the evidence.'
She said she's made numerous presentations that have been criticized by government decision-makers because they don't like the facts — not that they disagree with them.
'The presentation I did today is a short version of what I would normally do,' Prophet said. 'It kind of feels a little bit like I'm going to depress you, but I really need you to understand what the baseline is here.'
She gets that she's not delivering good news, but that doesn't sway her commitment.
'This is civics engagement 101,' Prophet said. 'Like who's doing what? Who's got your interests at heart? People need to know that someone's going to listen to them.'