Deference to the Marketplace: A Case Study of the Role of the Ontario Municipal Board in Agricultural Land Conservation, 1975-1985

This book is a case study of the role of the Ontario Municipal Board, the key planning tribunal in the province, in protecting agricultural land between 1975 and 1986. The study highlights the need for provincial and municipal governments to increase density in land use planning so that fewer people live on less land. As well, the concluding sections discuss the economic challenges facing farmers operating on the rural-urban fringe.

David McRobert is an Ontario-based environmental and energy lawyer. Between 1994 and 2010, he was In-House Counsel at the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario and was involved in the establishment of the office. David has a B.Sc. in Biology from Trent University (1980), a Master's degree (MES) from York University (1984), and an LL.B. degree from Osgoode Hall Law School (1987). He taught environmental law at York University between 1994 and 2009 and has numerous previous publications. McRobert's York 1984 MES degree examined whether resource management concepts as applied by southern wildlife managers are exotic ideologies and destined to wreak ecological havoc. In 1983 and 1984 he was involved in mapping traditional land uses including hunting and fishing grounds and berry picking areas used by Inuit, Inuvialiut and Dene peoples in the Mackenzie Dene Delta and the Yukon related to socio-economic projects and social impact studies he undertook with the Yukon Indians and the Mackenzie Dene Delta Regional Council. Major aboriginal concerns at the time related to proposed and existing oil and gas developments in the Beaufort Sea and proposed, existing and historical mineral and gas development in the Yukon. Since then he has undertaken work in many areas of land use planning and sustainability in Ontario and northern Canada. At Pollution Probe, he oversaw a 1991 study on The Costs of the Car (available through Amazon.com) in Ontario. This study provided graphic evidence of the land use, environmental, social, economic and health implications of car-dependence in North American societies.