I oppose the proposed…

I oppose the proposed Greenbelt changes from Bill 23, as well as the bill in its entirety.
This is reckless, short-sighted environmental destruction: By allowing for the sale of precious woodlands and wetlands, and downgrading the oversight role of the Conservation Authorities, this government prioritizes the construction of a proportionately small number of homes over the enormous value contained in these lands. According to Sarah Tuck, a doctor and environmental activist, “the resulting suburban sprawl would be public transit starved and car heavy, only adding to the air pollution and sedentary lifestyles that threaten our health.” This sets back responsible urban planning by at least 70 years.
As developers profit, the taxpayer burden will go up: While the bill aims to encourage speedy development of “affordable” housing by eliminating development and community benefit charges, the result would be skyrocketing costs to municipalities (and thus taxpayers) for infrastructure, recreational and transit service. These outlying developments would be costly to service, resulting in under-serviced neighbourhoods without equitable access to infrastructure that support health and quality of life such as public transit and parks. Even the city of AMO has stated there is no reason to believe house prices will go down if development fees are reduced. They will simply go to the profit margins of the wealthy landowners. “…The only people who will benefit from sacrificing Greenbelt lands are certain developers.” - Jack Gibbons, chair of the North Gwillimbury Forest Alliance
Municipalities left in the dust: Under this bill the planning for progressive housing expansion already underway in certain municipalities and regions would be undermined or canceled, and sprawl style development mandated. Additionally, municipalities would have no ability to enforce high performance development standards and other green building standards aimed at producing lower emissions buildings. It also leaves no ability for municipalities to protect the supply of affordable rental units, which goes against this government's stated aim of improving housing affordability; it will instead have the opposite effect of reducing the affordability of housing.
It goes against the recommendations of the government's own housing affordability task force. We do not need to open up the greenbelt in order to build more homes. All around the GTA, there are plenty of places for homes: for luxury homes, for mixed-use residences, for affordable housing, and everything in between. We do not need to touch the wetlands to have people achieve their dream of a roof over their heads and a warm bed. There is already enough land on which to build within existing zoning laws.
We cannot replace wetlands in one place with already-protected urban river valleys from another. Moving numbers around on paper does not protect the cities of Ontario from the flooding we know is coming.
This government's attempts to create profit for party donors at the expense of cities, taxpayers, citizens, and the ecosystem is blatant and undemocratic.