Ontario Libertarian Party
Attention News / Assignment Editors:
July 12, 2006 - The Ontario government’s Places to Grow Act became law in 2005 and its Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe subtitled “Places to Grow: Better Choices, Brighter Future” was released on June 16, 2006.
The Libertarian Party is the "Party of Choice," and as such, we reject this dictatorial power grab that seeks to impose “better choices” on individuals.
This plan represents even greater centralization of government planning, in which the people who force decisions on Ontarians are even further away from real life.
This plan is a continuation of other policies which attempt to obliterate personal property rights in Ontario, such as the Greenbelt Act which prohibits development within designated areas. Of course there is no mention of the concept of “property rights” in either the Places to Grow Act or the Growth Plan.
The preamble to the act states that “planning must occur in a rational and strategic way”. However, governments and central committees are not capable of rationally planning what is best for millions of individuals. Whereas the act elevates arbitrary power to the level of “rational”, the process of individuals expressing their personal choices through the free market is smeared by implication as irrational.
The province wants to plan how big our houses are, how much land is allotted to each unit, and where houses are in relation to businesses. The province also wants to establish minimum population densities.
The plan describes targets for intensification (p. 14-17): “All municipalities will develop and implement through their official plans and other supporting documents, a strategy and policies to phase in and achieve intensification and the intensification target.” The intensification targets (p. 16) are: 400 residents and jobs per hectare for urban growth centres in Toronto, 200 for urban growth centres in municipalities such as Brampton, and 150 for urban growth centres in municipalities such as Barrie.
The purpose of “urban growth centres” and “intensification corridors” is to move people away from the country and pack them into the city where they can be more easily ruled.
Individuals should decide the best use of land based on their needs. The government should not be deciding whether it is best for a family to live in a one-bedroom condominium or on a farm. Government planning also squelches innovation, but the free market allows for innovation and choice with respect to housing styles.
The plan complains (p. 8) that “attractive and efficient public transit is difficult to introduce into sprawling communities, and this limits our ability to respond effectively to growing traffic congestion issues.” In other words, the government wants to plan the living arrangements of residents in order to better serve transit systems rather than let transit systems develop to serve individual choice.
As the Star reports in its discussion of the Growth Plan, 400 people and jobs per hectare is "the minimum number of people required to support a subway”. In other words, the government thinks we exist to support subways. Packing people like sardines into intensification zones is all about making problem-solving more convenient for central authorities.
The plan (p. 8) admits that, “decades of neglect and lack of sufficient investment have resulted in the current infrastructure deficit. Tens of billions of dollars beyond current levels of investment will be required before the situation is back in balance.” This admission of government failure under various ruling parties raises the question of why we trust big government to manage anything. But here they go, tightening their grip, asserting more control in the face of failure, and planning in detail the lives of over 11 million people for the next 25 years.
The plan attacks “sprawl” (p.8), which is a pejorative term for “suburbanization”. Suburbanization is not for everyone, but it has made it possible for huge numbers of people to own their homes and accumulate capital, while raising their children away from the stress and noise of the 'high density' city.
The plan attacks individual mobility (p. 25) by requiring municipalities to implement policies that “increase the modal share of alternatives to the automobile.” That means the government will try to make you walk more, cycle more, use transit more and use your automobile less. But the pros and cons of all these modes of travel should be decided by individuals free of coercion.
Scattered throughout the plan are the fears used to justify violations of individual rights – fear of consumption of agricultural lands and other natural resources, fear of the loss of "employment lands", and fear of urban sprawl (p. 8). The implication is that forcing solutions to these supposed threats is the best way to deal with them.
The plan sets in stone the so-called “Culture of Conservation” (p. 30, 32) or as we might more accurately call it, the “Culture of Deprivation”. It’s the people-as-pets way of thinking and we are so sick of it. The complaints about human beings come thick and fast: We use too much water. We use too much energy. We produce too much waste. We use too much land. According to this belief system, only the government knows what is “sustainable”.
Contrary to their false assertions about sustainability, depriving human beings of freedom is not sustainable. Also, freedom is the only sustainable method for deciding how to deal with resources. The free market is one of the most important means we can use to work cooperatively with others to resolve concerns. All of these resource problems are everyday human problems, and are best managed by each individual who knows his/her own situation better than anyone else. That’s why each individual needs to be empowered with liberty and a system that properly protects their rights.
For residents to achieve the homes and neighborhoods they want, we need market-oriented and consumer-oriented planning. In other words, we need people deciding their own futures within a framework that also protects the legitimate rights of others they interact with.
The Libertarian Party rejects the whole concept of a central authority planning peoples’ lives and regulating the use of their property. Please register your disagreement with the Ontario government’s Growth Plan by supporting the Libertarian Party.
For more information, visit www.libertarian.on.ca.
Contact Information
Jim McIntosh -
Telephone: 416 283-7589
Ontario Libertarian Party
7-91 Rylander Blvd., Box 121
Scarborough, ON
M1B 5M5
Communications Director: Alan Mercer
References:
1. More of us, living better Toronto Star, June 16/06
2.
Places to Grow Act, 2005
and main page.
3.
Places to Grow - Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe 2006
and main page.
4.
Market-oriented Approaches to Growth: Outsmarting Sprawl's Impacts by Samuel Stanley, Director of Urban and Land Use Policy, Reason Foundation
5.
Suburban thrall: Montreal's expansion strategy will keep its economy competitive by Wendell Cox, Montreal Economic Institute. Explains the economic consequences of land rationing.
6.
Myths
about Urban Growth and the Toronto "Greenbelt" by Wendell Cox, Fraser
Institute. Discusses how the Greenbelt conflicts with other government
priorities such as affordable housing and obesity.
See also
The
Best Laid Plans of Govt Planners Usually Screw Up Your
Life
Randal
O'Toole, author of "The Best Laid Plans" a brilliant critique of urban planning
interviewed by www.FrontPageMagazine.com.