As someone who is looking to…

As someone who is looking to buy a home, I am strongly against the Greenbelt expansion plan. No argument has been made for why the government needs to build within the Greenbelt specifically. In fact, this plan will only contribute to sprawl and create homes outside of locations with existing infrastructure. Even if infrastructure gets built later, this is incredibly inefficient.

As the report of the the Ontario Housing Affordability Task Force states, "a shortage of land isn’t the cause of the problem. Land is available, both inside the existing built-up areas and on undeveloped land outside greenbelts. We need to make better use of land". The report does identify issues with zoning laws, but that has nothing to do with building within the Greenbelt, which the report states is completely unnecessary.

Furthermore, the Paris Galt Moraine can be conserved without you taking land away from the Greenbelt. Protecting the moraine is presented as a positive aspect of this plan, but bills to protect it have already been put forward and did not pass. The moraine could have been protected separately, but it was not. With the current trend, what is stopping your government from putting it up for development in a few years?

Your proposal only includes an analysis of regulatory impact. It says nothing about environmental impacts, impacts on air quality, impacts on at-risk species, flood management, or anything else that would potentially be affected by these proposed changes.

Finally, I am incredibly alarmed to hear reports that over half the parcels of Greenbelt land set to lose long-standing protections include properties purchased since you came to power. This is land that could not be developed before but which will create massive profits for developers if your plan goes through. Moreover, at least some of these developers have donated to the PC Party. I don't know if I need to spell out how corrupt this looks.

In short, there are no compelling reasons given in this proposal for why the Greenbelt needs to be developed to create more housing, the impacts of this plan on the environment and public health are unknown and not being considered, and those who will benefit the most will be developers. I cannot believe this is even being proposed.