Canadian journalist, publicist, and author Elizabeth Nickson points to the situation that has developed (and was deliberately created) in the province of Ontario, Canada. The problems she highlights are familiar. It seems that in Latvia, too, everything is being done to ostensibly destroy the working and living environment in the Latvian countryside for the sake of supposedly "noble" and "socially necessary" goals. "Nature counting", "species protection plans", "bird films", and other activities oriented toward the green business are undeniably affecting and will continue to affect land use in rural areas, disrupting the customary way of life of local residents, while "mystical" ecotourists or fairy tales about "blueberry exports to China" (a quote from a speech by a leading official at one of the many consultative council meetings) will not replace the Latvian countryside with its daily life, traditions, and human living environment. A similar process is taking place in Ontario, Canada. "Green" globalisation is gaining momentum...

Save our private land: increasingly strict legal regulation limits land development. This commentary was originally published by the "Financial Post" on 4 May 2015: http://business.financialpost.com/fp-comment/save-our-private-land-increasingly-strict-regulations-limits-land-development

Elizabeth Nickson's commentary.
Since environmental planning was initiated, 50,000 primary jobs in rural areas have been lost. Ten thousand positions in civil institutions and beyond are dedicated to land maintenance and preservation; funds are established, and organisational structures are developed and implemented. University faculties and sustainability thinkers present impressive research reflecting an extreme, even desperate need to “save the land”… The result? Less than 15% of land in Ontario is privately owned; the remainder is abandoned “crown” land or publicly accessible land, with the latter becoming subject to increasingly strict restrictions each year. These 15% available to private individuals are subject to increasingly stringent regulations that must comply with 70 environmental laws, plans, and agreements, as well as the related rules and laws passed since 1972. Furthermore, 36 conservation agency employees (one in each region) are constantly lobbying for the creation of bills and sequestrations. Many of these 36 agencies have set up separate land trusts that raise funds for land acquisition. 38 other Ontario-based conservation organisations also constantly lobby for increased environmental oversight and raise funds to acquire land. Finally, there are 132 active local and international nature conservation organisations in Ontario operating with the goal of acquiring land and strengthening regulations on private land use. In the Oak Ridges Moraine north of Toronto, known as cottage country, in addition to the above, a new form of protection called Landform Conservation requires that any new development projects, including in some cases the construction of a guest house or garage, must have 17 separate protection plans before the idea can even begin to be developed. Significant costs are an integral part of every plan. Such a scheme effectively excludes the middle and working-class population from property ownership. Bill 66, the Great Lakes Protection Act, which is currently under consideration, will tie up the vast and wealthy north of Ontario in incomprehensible webs of legal regulation. As has become standard in sustainable land use planning, the management of these lands will be taken away from local municipalities and citizens and handed over to bureaucratically appointed individuals. Such decision-making bodies are sometimes called conservation authorities, though whether the indication or "Orwellian" reference is ironic is not stated. Conservation organisations prefer to act at the federal level, with as few elected officials on the board as possible, with the ability to redirect tax money from wealthy municipalities to towns and regions whose capacity to fight the sequestration of their land is weaker. Property taxes on private land generally fund the majority of services provided by the municipality, such as repairs to roads and bridges, schools and hospitals, and sewage and water supply systems. Ontario's structural municipal debt in rent and OMERS payments is 60 billion US dollars, and the pension fund for municipal employees is only partially funded. The enormous burden on the municipal salary, benefits, and perks list is tied to the growing number of bureaucrats needed to manage Ontario's vast environmental regulatory burden. Currently, revenue from property taxes on private lands is decreasing in order to develop province-wide “watershed planning”. Small communities with fewer than 500 people are now facing bills of 500,000 US dollars to create watershed plans that will only restrict their future use. This is, of course, intentional, as the countryside must be "our rural air conditioner", which is a harsh solution to climate change. Which is working. Over the last 20 years, while Ontario's urban population has grown by 60%, the population in rural areas has decreased by almost 10%. In March 2012, the Ontario provincial government announced that it planned to eliminate the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission, divest and liquidate its assets, which was a major blow to businesses in the northern region. In March 2014, the University of Guelph announced it would close its two rural campuses in Kemptville and Alfred. The Ontario provincial government is now offering amendments to the Ontario Provincial Police compensation model, which will significantly increase costs for small rural municipalities, and the province is considering reducing the provision of health services for seniors in rural regions. The lives of working people in the country have become worse, crueller, and shorter. Running a business in the countryside is a test of endurance. Many experience premature heart attacks, and suicides are unfortunately common. Smartly named representatives of government-sponsored decision-making bodies arrive in towns to show residents that they live in “special places” and that polluting manufacturing and the existence of jobs are unnecessary. Councils are encouraged to spend money on cobblestones and old street signs. It is said that ecotourists will arrive, but they never do. There are not enough tourists in the world to replace the loss of 50,000 primary jobs in the countryside since the start of environmental planning. Primary jobs in the countryside have strong vertical and horizontal multipliers that are not fully understood. The rural economy of Ontario has provided for Canada for 150 years. Its destruction is a dirty and expensive business…