This proposal is…

This proposal is shortsighted, regressive, and flat out destructive to our province.

Nobody is saying we don't need housing, we absolutely do, however building sprawling suburban homes over our already diminishing farm land is going to ruin this province from an environmental and financial perspective. If this government is "fiscally conservative" then it should be focusing on densification within our current urban boundaries, removing restrictive single family zoning, and allowing mixed use, missing middle housing to be built (duplexes, triplexes, low-rise, walk up apartments, etc).

From a financial perspective, suburban sprawl requires more infrastructure to maintain such as needing longer roads, longer gas and water lines, more waste, police, and fire services which cost taxpayers significantly more compared to maintaining mixed use, densely zoned neighborhoods. This mixed use, dense development generates significantly more property tax and revenue per square meter which can go back to municipalities and the province, and ultimately taxpayers. Suburbs have and continue to put Canadian cities in debt as these neighborhoods do not generate enough tax revenue to pay for the services and infrastructure they require.

Even more so, the Greenbelt provides over $3 billion worth of ecological services, including filtering pollution and waste, regulating water flow, and preventing floods. If the green belt is opened for development, not only will this cause even greater climate damage, but it will also damage critical infrastructure and our water sources which will cost this government and tax payers billions of dollars.

I urge you to rescind this regressive and fiscally irresponsible plan and instead look towards a more financially and environmentally sustainable future for this province. The people of Ontario deserve it, they re-elected you after all.

Thank you for reading,

- a concerned Ontarian.