Indigenous Involvement in Environmental Planning in Southern Ontario: Ontario’s Greenbelt Plan

Through the case example of Ontario’s 2017 Greenbelt Plan, this session offers conference participants concrete recommendations on how to further improve environmental planning in Southern Ontario through the meaningful inclusion of First Nation and Métis voices. With the completion of the Coordinated Land Use Planning Review, this session intends to ignite a conversation among planning practitioners about the inclusion of Indigenous communities in both the greenbelt policies and the review process. The presentation will first compare the 2017 Greenbelt Plan document to the 2005 version in order to highlight the changes that have been made in terms of recognizing and including Indigenous peoples. Then by drawing from an analysis of Ontario’s Greenbelt Plan as well as a series of interviews with municipal and provincial planners and First Nation and Métis representatives, this session will highlight best practices for environmental planners from across the province on ways to engage with Indigenous communities to enhance environmental planning and policymaking.
 

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