The Greenbelt was created to…

The Greenbelt was created to protect significant natural lands and farmlands from death by a thousand cuts which would result if developers and land speculators were allowed to build in these areas.
It is not true that this land is needed to build homes on. There is already sufficient land to build homes on for decades in Southern Ontario. The urban boundaries have already been expanded to provide even more of this land. Swapping land is not a solution. Some of the land to be swapped is also land that should be or already is protected in other ways and doing this swap would lead to more demands from developers to build on protected lands.
It is not true that these lands would help to make housing more affordable. Building on greenbelt lands will result in sprawl away from where those needing affordable homes live and work.
The homes that would be built in these subdivisions would be large suburban homes for the wealthy. Building these homes would prevent more affordable homes from being built because the province is short on skilled workers in the building trades.
Homes should instead be built in already urbanized areas that are zoned for residential building. Higher density, infilling and inclusive zoning should be encouraged.
Farmland needs to be vigorously protected if we are to feed ourselves in the future and this proposal would destroy farmland including some lands designated as tender fruit areas.
Natural areas, wetlands, woodlots and streams would all be impacted. We would suffer biodiversity loss when the linkages that allow wildlife to move across the landscape are destroyed. We would lose threatened species that depend on these natural areas. If you allow land to be removed from the greenbelt, we will have less climate change resilience and experience more flooding.
Please withdraw these amendments to the greenbelt.