The Greenbelt is essential…

The Greenbelt is essential environmental infrastructure which keeps people and properties safe from pollution, flooding, and the natural disasters that are worsening with climate change. It is also essential for the well-being of people who already live in an urban area with few significant green spaces. My family and I rejuvenate ourselves by hiking, but we have to drive for hours to do this. Losing even part of the Greenbelt will undermine these many basic environmental services.

Housing and affordability are important to me, but it is clear that the answer is densification, not further sprawl into the very areas that make our region livable at all. The Ford government's proposal to open this land to developers smells of cronyism, profiteering, and further jurisdictional trespass. If this government cares about affordable housing they should be taking action on market and rent controls, and mandating affordability as a requirement for new builds. That has not happened, even when taking drastic measures such as the destruction of the Greenbelt.

I urge the Government of Ontario to further protect Greenbelt lands and reverse the decision to remove land from it. Thank you.