Ontario’s environment is facing many threats from many angles. There are also many possible solutions to our challenges. While your event might choose to highlight a specific threat or solution, some approaches to environmental challenges can cause more harm than they offer in benefits. For that reason, we have developed some overarching principles to ensure that all events fit into the broad vision of the Yours to Protect movement.
You don’t have to include all of these points in your messaging or even agree with every single item, we only ask that you commit to not working against this broad vision.
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The Yours to Protect Movement and Yours to Protect Weekend Support:
- Significantly expanding the Greater Golden Horseshoe Greenbelt, as well as Provincial Parks, Conservation Reserves, and the total footprint of land permanently off-limits for destruction.
- Working with Indigenous Communities to protect carbon-sinks like peatland and the Boreal forest.
- Implementing UNDRIP (United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples) in Ontario, and adopting it into law, including a prohibition on mining, logging, paving or similar use of land over which indigenous nations claim aboriginal or treaty rights, without their free, prior, and informed consent.
- Protecting what remains of Ontario’s quality farmland and southern wildlife habitats, on both private and public land, by accommodating all new homes and workplaces in the sensitive Eastern Woodlands Ecoregion, within existing settlement boundaries.
- Using most of Ontario’s new homes, workplaces and infrastructure to transform existing car-dependent suburbs into denser zero-carbon complete communities where walking, biking and public transit are the most convenient way to get around.
- Rapidly reducing Ontario’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions across sectors including, but not limited to, transportation, buildings and electricity generation
- Restoring and strengthening the Endangered Species Act.
- Restoring and expanding the powers, environmental mandate, and independence of Conservation Authorities.
- Rapidly expanding public transit and inter-city train and bus services.
- Placing a moratorium on new aggregate extraction projects until better planning and regulation are instituted for these projects.
- Better protections for our lakes, waterways and drinking water.
- Better waste management policies and practices.
- Improving air-quality especially in overburdened communities.
The Yours to Protect Movement and Yours to Protect Weekend Oppose:
- Excessive reliance on new roads and highways to meet our transportation needs.
- Excessive use and production of plastics and toxins like PFAS.
- Urban sprawl, exclusionary zoning and urban boundary expansion
- Putting the onus for systemic problems entirely upon individuals.
- Environmental racism in any form.