This government campaigned…

This government campaigned on a promise to leave Ontario’s green belt untouched. Instead of focusing on utilizing already-developed land in an efficient way by incentivizing infill and density, public transit, and the types of public infrastructure that are so prevalent in European communities and so sorely missing in most of ours, this government is committing to multiple destructive paths that reward donors and double-down on historic urban planning that we know is no longer working. We need arable land close to our already existing communities. We need forests to filter out the smog of pollution caused by our sprawling (and expanding thanks to this government) network of highways. What we do not need is more urban sprawl, filled with McMansions with limited green space, extraordinarily immature and drastically reduced tree canopies and even more cars on the road.

I urge you strongly to reconsider this plan and to instead focus on the kinds of urban planning decisions that are forward-looking even if they are more challenging.