This deeply Saddens me to…

This deeply Saddens me to see this proposal is back after the large out cry when it was first proposed. I also signed a petition against the highway proposal. I think of all the empty space we have and question why our government decided on targeting a vital ecosystem. The Greenbelt is protected for a reason. I want be able to have kids and not worry about the state of the climate were leaving to them.
Global Warming is a serious problem and we need to take action to fix it now, not add to it.

There were 1.31 million vacant homes in 2021 according to the census. That's not far off what your proposal says we will require in the near future. This doesn't include vacant properties or businesses.

There are Empty office buildings, and retail spaces that have sat empty for years. Could we not repurpose those for low income housing. There's now a empty old age home in whitby although run down, if not fixable it could be torn down and something built in its place. In Oshawa Sears sits empty in our mall, currently being used for a covid vaccine clinic on the ground floor, although a good temporary use its not forever. Are there other empty Sears locations? There's a Reno Depot in Aurora just off the 404 that's been empty for a few years now. How many targets sat empty for years before they were divided up, torn down or filled. Is there still empty ones? How many large retail locations sit empty because no-one can fill them. Will Toys r Us or Hudson's Bay be the next to join them?

There are empty houses too. In Whitchurch-Stouffville/Newmarket, I know of two houses that sit empty right across the street from one another. They have sat empty for years, the really run down one was finally torn down but now the lot sits empty. There are also Houses that sit empty because foreign investors are buying up homes, with no intentions of using them. Even if that's a small fraction it still adds to our housing troubles.

These are just some locations I know of without doing any research. How many more could I find if I dug a little deeper? I know that these are all owned in one way or another or zoned for other things but the government could allow for rezoning and provide incentives to the owners to repurpose these spaces for housing.

As a millennial worried about our future please, I beg you to look at other options/other areas. Don't just pick the easy option.

Thank you for taking the time to read my Comment.