QUEEN'S PARK - Tim Hudak, MPP for Erie-Lincoln, gained a powerful ally this week in his fight to move the Friends of the Greenbelt Foundation's office to a greenbelt municipality, when Ontario PC leader John Tory announced his party's plan to move some government offices into rural communities if the PC party is elected to government this October.

Tory said (Canadian Press, March 5) that a Conservative provincial government would develop a plan to move around 10 per cent of Ontario's civil service jobs out of Toronto and into rural and northern communities. He added moving the Greenbelt Foundation office to a rural community within the greenbelt would be a natural fit for the plan.

"Having the Greenbelt Foundation office in downtown Toronto, in some respects, makes very little sense when it's about the greenbelt." Tory said.

Hudak has been calling on the McGuinty Government to move the foundation's operations to the greenbelt since it first moved into an office in the expensive Toronto neighbourhood of Yorkville in 2005.

"You'd think they would have found office space in, say, Beamsville or Grimsby or somewhere else in the greenbelt area," Hudak said in a Nov. 21, 2005 statement in the House. "I know there's a lot of empty office space that they could have utilized in the Niagara peninsula or other parts of the province."

Hudak said it only makes sense that greenbelt matters be dealt with in offices within the greenbelt. He added that other organizations specializing in environmental protection - such as the Niagara Escarpment Commission, based in Georgetown, and the Oak Ridges Moraine Foundation, based in King City - have their offices within municipalities that contain some of the lands they are protecting.

"Instead of opening an office in Yorkville, one of Toronto's most expensive neighbourhoods, the Greenbelt Foundation should be in a greenbelt community close to the farmers, residents and municipal leaders they are charged to work with," Hudak said. "With the direct advice of people who work and live in the greenbelt, the $25 million controlled by the foundation would be better invested in worthy projects, not expensive rent."

Backgrounder:

- The 728,500-hectare protected greenbelt area stretches along the Niagara peninsula from Niagara-on-the-Lake through Lincoln and hooks around Lake Ontario, north of Toronto, all the way to the Peterborough area and north to Lake Simcoe (See map: www.mah.gov.on.ca).

- The Greenbelt Foundation's mandate is to sustain the greenbelt as a beneficial, valuable, and permanent feature that enhances the quality of life for all residents of Ontario. It has been given a $25-million endowment from the provincial government, which it plans to allocate to greenbelt organizations and communities over a five-year period (www.ourgreenbelt.ca).

- In a November 9, 2005 letter to Premier Dalton McGuinty, Hudak called on the Premier to ensure the $25 million he had given to the foundation was being invested properly within the greenbelt and not on swanky office space. The following are excerpts from that letter:

o "According to media reports, to date the $25 million you have given to the Greenbelt Foundation has been used to rent expensive office space in the swanky Yorkville area of downtown Toronto, some of the city's most expensive real estate; to conduct political polling; and to carry out a $1.5 million political advertising campaign."

o "Premier, municipalities like Lincoln, Grimsby, Pelham, St. Catharines, Thorold and Niagara-on-the-Lake have had their growth frozen under the Greenbelt Act. Furthermore, smaller communities like Lincoln, Grimsby, Pelham, Niagara-on-the-Lake and Thorold have had their provincial transfers sharply reduced or totally eliminated. Surely, some of that $25 million could be better invested in these Greenbelt communities to make the Greenbelt actually work."

- In a November 21, 2005 statement in the House, Hudak once again raised concerns regarding the foundation's location in Yorkville and the misappropriation of Greenbelt Foundation funding. The following is an excerpt from that statement:

o "Why would the Greenbelt Foundation rent property in this very posh, expensive neighbourhood and use these funds - which could be better utilized for supporting farmers or municipalities in the greenbelt area - to go into this expensive commercial space, let alone it being in the city of Toronto? ...This is a foundation that supposedly promotes the greenbelt and makes sure that the greenbelt is a success. You'd think they would have found office space in, say, Beamsville or Grimsby or somewhere else in the greenbelt area. I know there's a lot of empty office space that they could have utilized in the Niagara peninsula or other parts of the province rather than investing who knows how much money in expensive real estate in the posh Yorkville neighbourhood."