Mike Schreiner unveils Green Plan for Rural Ontario at ROMA

January 21, 2025

TORONTO — Addressing the annual convention of the Rural Ontario Municipalities Association this morning, Ontario Greens leader Mike Schreiner unveiled the party’s plan for rural Ontario.

TORONTO – Addressing the annual convention of the Rural Ontario Municipalities Association this morning, Ontario Greens leader Mike Schreiner unveiled the party’s plan for rural Ontario.

“The Ford government has abandoned rural Ontario,” said Schreiner. “Healthcare and housing are out of reach for so many rural residents, and the Premier cares more about building a luxury spa and ripping out bike lanes in downtown Toronto than he does about helping them out.”

“Greens recognize that Ontario’s rural communities are essential to our province’s prosperity. We have a plan to address the unique challenges they’re facing.”

The Green Plan for Rural Ontario will address five key challenges facing rural communities:

Address the housing and homelessness crises in rural communities

• Build at least 250,000 new affordable non profit and co-op rental homes and 60,000 permanent supportive homes with guaranteed operational funding and make provincial land available at no cost
• Upload community housing and shelter costs to the province that had been unfairly downloaded onto municipalities by prior governments
• Streamline the process for building missing middle housing and remove barriers to developing existing buildings like abandoned plazas and warehouses
• Reinstate the brownfield remediation fund to support municipalities to safely build new homes on previously industrial sites

Expand rural healthcare access and address current shortages

• Recruit 3,500 doctors to Ontario so everyone has access to a family doctor in the next three to five years and expand team-based care into all rural and northern communities across Ontario
• Increase provincial funding for rural hospitals and cut the local cost share for funding new hospitals in half
• Fix the staffing shortage by providing equal pay for nurses, doctors and PSWs across all communities and healthcare settings in Ontario to increase capacity in rural and remote communities, and compensate healthcare workers fairly for their travel to treat patients at home

Support Ontario’s food and farming sector

• Establish a Food Belt by permanently protecting prime farmland in Ontario
• Invest in local food hubs to support local farmers, supply chains and businesses and increase provincial investment in AgTech to support innovation in the food and farming sector
• Introduce a provincial ALUS program to pay farmers for environmental goods and services that benefit all Ontarians
• Increase funding for risk management programs

Protect the places we love

• Reverse the government’s attack on environmental protections, wetland preservation and Conservation Authorities
• Prohibit 400 series highways in the Greenbelt and cancel Highway 413 and the Bradford Bypass
• Work with Indigenous communities to conserve and protect 30 percent of natural areas by 2030
• Expand the Greenbelt to include a Bluebelt that protects Ontario’s lakes, rivers and wetlands

Fund rural infrastructure

• Implement a $2 billion-a-year Climate Adaptation Fund to help municipalities make their infrastructure more resilient to the impacts of climate change
• Create a new long-term and predictable municipal funding transfer for rural and northern communities to improve local roads, bridges and other infrastructure
• Expand electric grid capacity in rural areas so that we can attract business investment and job creation while making sure rural residents can take advantage of money saving opportunities from heat pumps and electric cars and trucks
• Increase investments in social infrastructure to clear the repair backlog for public schools and ensure affordable child care is available to rural families

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