I do not think the…

I do not think the government should be building on the greenbelt, or even considering opening the greenbelt for development.

Opening is greenbelt is lazy. Politicians want to build in the greenbelt because they don't have the courage to make an unpopular decision, and do not want to annoy the landed elites owning million dollar homes in Toronto proper. They do not want to upset NIMBY Torontonians (or those in Vaughn or any of the other suburbs) who have become attached to their single family home neighbourhoods. They don't want to pass legislation that would require/force single family neighbourhoods to allow density.

Developers want to build in the greenbelt because it gives them the biggest bang for the buck. They profit off poorly built single family homes. Then they saddle municipalities with higher and higher infrastructure costs needed to connect all of these new inefficient and sprawling single family homes to municipal services. They run away with the profits, and society is saddled with the costs.

The argument is that nobody will buy anything but single family homes, but that is because developers build such trash condo developments that nobody actually wants to buy one. Politicians should be setting higher standards for developers to ensure better aparment/condo construction, equivalent to the flats in Europe. People would buy a well built apartment.

But ultimately, the worst part of the plan is how shortsighted it is. It opens to door to development overtop of sensitive ecosystems which are necessary to preserve the quality of life and ecosystem services that surrounding communities enjoy.

Rather than building on the greenbelt the Government should be pushing for higher density, and should be willing to take drastic political action to force this higher density. The goverment should also focus on developing other cities far away from Toronto and the Greenbelt. Ontario cannot continue as a one horse town, and doing so only permits the excessive sprawl and bedroom communities that is characteristic of Southern Ontario.