The greenbelt exists for a…

The greenbelt exists for a purpose, and applying land offsetting to the greenbelt totally defeats that purpose. Good farmland and establish habitat aren’t transferable. Studies show that land transfer is not actually possible to do in a way that has equivalent environmental benefit to conserving existing ecosystems. The environmental devastation that would be caused by developing the greenbelt dramatically outweighs the benefits of building housing on this land. There is plenty of land for development elsewhere, and it is fully possible (and even advantageous!) to avoid developing this specific region. Even the financial costs of creating infrastructure for the proposed developments doesn’t make sense. The only thing to be potentially gained from this proposal is short term wealth for landowners within the proposed area of development, and that only serves a tiny minority of Ontarians for a short time. The long term ramifications for wildlife corridors, carbon capture, food security and agricultural livelihood, watershed preservation, and air/water pollution would be devastating. This proposal cannot be approved with a good conscience.