While I am all for housing…

While I am all for housing development, I believe it is fundamentally not in the interests of Ontarians or of municipalities to further open up protected lands. Instead, densifying and redeveloping existing lands can achieve two main goals:

1 - Low-density single-family lots with large setbacks and lot sizes costs outsize resources at the municipal level to maintain, acting as a sink on municipal budgets. Conversion of these areas by adding density through zoning or redevelopment will turn these net-negative areas from tax sinks to tax sources.

2 - Greenbelt and other already protected lands are not 'swappable' with other lands. Protected lands were protected based on sound science. Additionally, by focusing efforts on densifictation rather than greenfield development, we reduce emissions, and reduce environmental impact of already existing urban / suburban areas rather than just adding to the problems we already have with pollution, emissions, heat-island effects, and surface-water runoff.