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Reader poll: Overwhelming majority oppose building on farmland

In an online poll last week, almost 90 per cent of readers said they opposed building more housing if it means paving over farmland
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In an online poll this week, almost 90 per cent of readers said they opposed building more housing if it means paving over farmland.

The issue gained prominence late last year when the Ford government announced that it would allow development on parts of the protected Greenbelt in south-central Ontario.

The Narwhal and the Toronto Star have reported that developers who own parcels of Greenbelt land approved for construction bought the land before the policy change was announced. Several gave significant amounts of money to the PC party. 

Ford has denied that anyone in his government gave landowners prior notice of the policy change. Polls have shown that it is very unpopular

More recently, Ford has called the Greenbelt "a big scam". 

In a poll last week, an overwhelming number of readers opposed turning farmland into housing.   

5,375 of you voted. 

Interestingly, there were no visible regional differences to speak of.

Our northern and southern readers often have different perspectives - in this case, we wondered if opinions would be different in places where there is no farmland to speak of - but apparently not.

 


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Patrick Cain

About the Author: Patrick Cain

Patrick is an online writer and editor in Toronto, focused mostly on data, FOI, maps and visualizations. He has won some awards, been a beat reporter covering digital privacy and cannabis, and started an FOI case that ended in the Supreme Court
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