This proposal is a betrayal…

This proposal is a betrayal of the assurances that the Ford government previously made to Ontarians that the Greenbelt would not be developed. The protection of this land represents a sacred trust between our current generation and future generations of Ontarians. To open up large chunks of it to sprawling development violates that trust. Doug Ford, Steve Clark and their apparatchiks have no moral right to do this. I am certain that the majority of Ontarians do not support the proposal. The only ones that would favour it are developers and land speculators, and history and common sense tell us that these people rarely have the public interest at heart, but rather only their pocketbooks.

Is there a housing crisis in Ontario? Perhaps there is. But one doesn’t solve a crisis by exacerbating other urgent problems. We are in the midst of growing climate instability in this province and country. Food security is an issue around the world. And nature and the wildlife species that inhabit it are under increasing pressure everywhere, including Ontario. In the face of all these serious threats, why would our provincial government even think of sacrificing thousands of acres of precious forests, wetlands and farmland in exchange for endless swaths of cookie-cutter subdivisions and McMansions? It is the height of irresponsibility.

By contrast, the responsible approach would be to utilize lands that have been already designated for development as locations for future housing. According to this year’s report by the Ontario Housing Affordability Task Force, there are over 86,000 acres in the GTA and Hamilton region alone that have been designated as such. This is believed to go well beyond the capacity that is projected to be required to meet Ontario’s long-range housing goals, and it refutes any reasoning or pretext given by the Ford government for exposing the Greenbelt to destructive development.

The proposal in question, as it stands now, is simply a needless environmental catastrophe in the making. If implemented, it will enrich a few at the expense of many. And it will be a terrible legacy to leave behind for not only Doug Ford and Steve Clark, but for all present-day Ontarians. It needs to be stopped, and I hope that it will be legally challenged until it is stopped, and until the Greenbelt is preserved in its entirety, as it was promised to be.