Building in the greenbelt…

Building in the greenbelt and instead "conserving" in a bunch of unrelated, scattered pieces of land in the province is not a valid conservation method - As a professional environmental scientist, anyone in the environment or land stewardship community knows this, that the greenbelt exists as one large mass for many important reasons that all impact the success of conservation efforts. It seems by public opinions being voiced via media and social media coverage on this issue, there is a very real public fear that this government is also aware of this fact, that building on the greenbelt is the wrong thing to do environmental speaking, and is going to betray the promise not to build in the greenbelt regardless. It may be worth further considering the damage this decision will cause to the level of public trust in the Premier and the public service in general, giving this more weight in the options note presented. Much like the CUPE strike issue and invoking the notwithstanding clause, I believe the government is not accurately taking the temperature of the public on this issue and is misjudging the amount of damage this will cause to the public's level of support for the sitting government. I think an important piece of this puzzle, if you're looking for support, would be to either (a) build elsewhere, do not break apart the greenbelt, or (b) minimize damage to public perception by presenting the public with rationale why option (a) was not viable, explain why houses have to be built in the greenbelt instead of other non-protected lands.