Quality of life includes…

Quality of life includes opportunities to enjoy natural beauty and a healthy holistic economy with a strong, diverse, local agricultural partner; market garden, dairy, vineyards, organic, botanical distilleries, maple syrup and so much more. As we tirelessly ravage our farmland and countryside and turn paradise into car dealerships and condos, we, like slowly boiled frogs, eventually have no memory of the woods and fields that once contained our communities and used to be our livelihood and our refuge.

I strongly advise the government to drop the "40ha" increment provision. This is an ugly worm, in a salad that we all have to eat. It will spawn itself over and over until no leaf is left unstained.

Opportunistic developers will be that worm. Municipalities will be under constant pressure to open "just" another 40ha to developers whose paid lobbyists and driven persistence will eventually find a crack in community vigilance ... if not this year then next.

I urge you to close this 40ha clause. It is parasitic to the natural heritage of our future citizens. We owe the next generation of citizens - many not yet born - a worthy remnant of our rural past; a protected sanctuary of the agriculture bounty and natural beauty that profoundly who we are as a society.

Dropping the 40ha clause is hope for the future. It recognizes that a healthy community is more than just more jobs in an expansion driven growth machine that devours everything in its path. I believe this kind of consideration is consistent with a society that is much more ready for the future.