I'm writing to submit a…

I'm writing to submit a comment as part of your ongoing consultation regarding Bill 23.

As currently written, Bill 23 would be a disaster for Ontario. As the climate crisis worsens, wetlands are essential to stave off expensive floods, and farmland is increasingly valuable - yet this bill would decimate both.

We badly need to build more homes quickly - but they need to be built where existing infrastructure exists, increasing density and protecting against sprawl. This bill as currently written would instead commit Ontario to decades more low-density sprawl, which is ultimately less affordable, more ecologically damaging, and less economically viable.

It is difficult to understand, and deeply concerning, that this bill seems to avoid useful measures while instead prioritizing short-term pillaging of essential protected lands. Frankly, the legislation as written is irredeemable, and I urge the committee to do all it can to scrap it and start over.

The Ontario government should proudly defend and expand the Greenbelt - its creation was a landmark, forward-thinking and model example of modern conservation policy that accomplished several important things: protected ground water, protected biodiversity, supported local agriculture and tourism, and ensured GTA residents access to natural and agricultural spaces within a short drive from any urban centre. It was painstakingly designed to maximize connectivity and benefit the integrity of natural and agricultural systems. To take pieces of it away is to undermine its structure and significantly devalue what’s left. To set a precedent of taking land that was specifically chosen for protection from development and stripping it of that protection sets a precedent that will be hard to walk back. It also sends a message to Ontarians. That message is: we care more about the viability of the development industry, than the health and well-being of Ontarians, which is intimately connected to how well we mitigate the effects of climate change, protect our drinking water and conserve our agricultural and natural lands.

Walk this proposal back, or lose the trust of Ontario voters.