My comments below pertain to…

My comments below pertain to Bill 23, the proposal to remove greenbelt land. The passing of this Bill will have a disastrous impact on the future health, economic, and general well being of citizens of Ontario.

The greenbelt - the bread basket of the region - is intended to be a permanent and continuous belt of land, protecting biodiversity and farmland. Reducing the amount of land designated for the greenbelt erodes the capacity of the remaining lands to sustain the critical mass of bio-diversity that is required to grow and pollinate the food that feeds our communities. As we have just learned, 20% of species in Canada are currently at risk and we have already caused 1 million extinctions of species globally. By removing spaces designated as natural habitats from the greenbelt will no doubt have a detrimental impact on the health and well being of people, here and across the world.

The proposal to removing land from the greenbelt specifically in order to address the housing crisis is seriously flawed. The housing crisis is a - home affordability crisis - and building new houses on raw land is not addressing the seriousness of this pressing issue. There are many other ways to address this need, such as increasing density in existing areas, encouraging new apartments in existing houses throughout urban centres, and implementing policies that support fair living wages, to name just a few. This ill-conceived plan is NOT about addressing the housing crisis - it's an excuse to satisfy the ambitions of a few developers and lay the burden of the infrastructure costs on the municipalities - which will trickle down to home owners expense. This plan is NO WAY to address the housing crisis.

Bill 23 should be repealed and the greenbelt should be permanently protected from all development proposals in future.