As reported at www.farm.com on January 12, 2010 " Last night was a tremendous night for the Farmers of the Holland Marsh, and the citizens of King Township. We are fortunate to have so many astute individuals willing to take up this cause, and do battle with the Ontario government! As one Councilor put it "I never would have thought we would ever have to deal with the building of a power plant in the Holland Marsh"--yah, no kidding! A hydrological study has been done, independently, which does not favour the peaker plant builder's position, and this is very good. Now, as the Township Solicitor pointed out, if the provincial government really wants this project to move ahead--it will, but they can just as easily quash the entire project! The site for this facility is in a floodplain, which goes against the Provincial Policy Statement, and as well, is not "compatible" with the business of farming in this highly productive, specialty crop area. Apparently though, the Ministry of the Environment sees nothing wrong with building a 400MW natural gas-fired power plant, and claims there will be "no negligible affects to the area". I don't know how they have arrived at this particular conclusion, since they also didn't think anything other than the most basic environmental assessment was required (i.e. the same assessment that would be given to a small windmill project). This project flies in the face of so many "protected" area policies, and different pieces of legislation that anyone who is given just the tiniest bit of information about this area is flabbergasted that this was the chosen location! Anyway, our hope of hopes is that this project will be scrapped in its entirety, so that we Holland Marsh Farmers can get on with the business of feeding the people of Ontario! "

One of Premier McGinty's claim to fame is the designation of 1.8 million acres in Ontario as a Greenbelt in 2005; a permanently protected area of green space, farmland, forests, wetlands, and watersheds that surrounds a significant portion of Canada's most populated and fastest-growing area known as the Golden Horseshoe.

According to the Greenbelt Act 2005

"The Greenbelt Act, 2005 enables the creation of a Greenbelt Plan to protect about 1.8 million acres of environmentally sensitive and agricultural land in the Golden Horseshoe from urban development and sprawl.  It includes and builds on about 800,000 acres of land within the Niagara Escarpment Plan and the Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Plan."

The Greenbelt legislation was bittersweet for farmers. Even though it protected their farms from urban sprawl, allowing them to peacefully continue their usual farming practices, it removed any possibility of ever having their land value increase beyond that of farmland. Farms that weren't in the Greenbelt instantly became much more valuable than those in the Greenbelt.

The Act specifically defined the Niagara Fruit Belt, the Oak Ridges Moraine and the Holland Marsh. These areas were recognized as being extremely sensitive and their protection extremely important, so it's amazing that a power plant in the Holland Marsh is even being considered!

Let's give another big round of applaud for our fearless leaders aka "The McGinty Gang"!!