To me, the creation of the…

To me, the creation of the Greenbelt was Ontario’s most inspired and visionary act in recent decades. It is an immeasurably precious commodity, and growing the Greenbelt will be one of the most important actions of the present government, with positive repercussions not just for those of us here now, but also for our children and grandchildren, the innocent inheritors of a planet that is dangerously heating at an unprecedented rate.

This is not dystopian fiction. The signs are already apparent and acknowledged in all parts of the world: glaciers and ice fields are melting at record speeds; sea levels are rising; heat-trapping methane gas is being released into the atmosphere at record rates from melting permafrost; species are dying out from too-rapid temperature changes; massive wildfires, floods, and droughts are wreaking environmental havoc. Scientists – biologists, climatologists, meteorologists, oceanographers, to name just a few of the disciplines – are deeply fearful for the future and how the planet and everything on it will cope, even survive. And if the scientists are fearful, so should we be.

We can live without most things but not without food and water, and these fundamental resources must be close at hand. Here in Ontario, this means protecting our fresh water sources and our agricultural land now, while they still exist and we still can. And there is no easier and better way to do so than by growing and protecting our Greenbelt.

Recent research out of Cornell University shows that global agricultural productivity has not been increasing in recent decades, despite new technology and larger, consolidated farms. It has, in fact, slumped by 21% since 1961, compared to where it would have been if not for the devastating effects of climate change. This is a disastrous finding. California’s Central Valley, where much of Canadians’ fresh food currently comes from, will not be a reliable supplier for us much longer. Plagued by wildfires, droughts, and disastrously depleted groundwater resources, California’s agricultural productivity is already declining, and the worsening conditions there will make further decline inevitable. Similar problems are being faced by farmers across the southern U.S., in Mexico, and in all countries at or near the equator. As the planet continues to heat, those places will become too hot for the kind of crops grown there now and that are part of our regular diet.

Ontario, with its wealth of farmland, even if much diminished in scale when compared with a century ago, is in a prime position to fill critical food needs. While our own climate will get warmer, our growing season will be longer as a consequence, and our crop options will be broader even as we lose the ability to grow some of our current crops, which require cooler temperatures. If we plan for this future now, by enlarging and protecting our Greenbelt, we will have created a lifeline, a vital food basket for the GTA and beyond, a local and reliable source of fresh food and clean drinking water for those who live here.

There should be no question about doing this. No hesitation, no denial, no fence-sitting, no whataboutism, no half-measures, no postponements. It’s just too important. The Greenbelt is the best and most enduring investment we could ever make for our economy, for our physical and mental health, and for our future generations.

Thank you for the opportunity to contribute to -- and support -- this crucial initiative.