I am among the demographic…

I am among the demographic of Ontarians looking to find a permanent home and worrying that there may not be opportunities to live in the region I grew up in due to cost and limited availability. Despite my fear of having adequate housing, I am disturbed by the recklessness of Ontario's Plan to Build More Homes Faster for 2 reasons:

1) It ignores the environmental, climate, and health impacts that ploughing through Ontario's Greenbelt would bring. Doug Ford's "tough decision" makes risky and unnecessary cuts to environmental protections. While we may not be able to assign a numeric value to the ecological value of the greenbelt, this land is important to the ecosystems which still drive our way of life in Ontario.

2) New developments are being incentivized with policies that favour investors. A lack of rent protection in buildings rented after 2018, new developments which prioritize luxury homes, "affordable units" that are used as investment rental properties, and housing built on agricultural land far from social services and public transport do not ensure that housing meets the needs of all Ontarians.

Cutting red-tape and delays by cutting environmental and social responsibility is not progress and does not reflect the creative solutions from government that we need moving into the decade. To truly address housing concerns with a responsible long-term solution, the Ontario government must allow the people who know the land best (locals at the municipal level, with consult from indigenous groups) the authority to dictate how development occurs.