Save the Greenbelt rally planned for Richmond Hill Saturday

Save the Greenbelt rallies are extending beyond Pickering with some 300 York Region residents expected to be in Richmond Hill Saturday for the Return Greenbelt Lands rally.

Mayors in Richmond Hill and Newmarket have both stated the lands needed for their communities to meet their provincially mandated housing targets are already available without using the formerly protected Greenbelt, which was removed from protection last November by the Doug Ford government.

“Richmond Hill’s perspective is that all of our housing targets can be and should be efficiently met by building within the existing urban areas not on environmentally protected lands” said Richmond Hill Mayor David West, a sentiment shared by John Taylor, his counterpart in Newmarket, who said planners have demonstrated that the land needed. to support growth is available “without accessing Greenbelt lands.”

Liveable Richmond Hill, one of the organizers of the rally, said in a statement there is “public outrage” after the Auditor General’s report showed that the provincial government’s removal of land from the Greenbelt benefits a small number of select developers with a $8.3 billion windfall and are demanding the lands be returned to the Greenbelt/

The rally will be held from 1-3 p.m. at Richmond Green in Richmond Hill.