Recently the Ontario…

Recently the Ontario government tried to develop wetlands that had been designated as environmentally sensitive, while efforts were made to expand the greenbelt in ways that are much less signifiant to the environment. These efforts to undermine the environmentally sensitive areas while appearing to be "expanding" the greenbelt are not acceptable. As this happened recently, my hopes for the legitimate efforts to actually strengthen and expand the greenbelt in environmentally significant ways are jaded. However, as a citizen of Ontario I feel an obligation to try to preserve it for longterm benefits and gains.

Your question was how to best expand the Greenbelt. For that answer, consult with scientists, with environmental groups, with the long-view of what will serve Ontarians the best. There is a growing movement that declares that an environmentally healthy environment is a human right. I would add that it is also a right of animals to have livable habitat, and even perhaps the right of the earth to have areas of "oases" that preserve water, land, and habitat as living reservoirs of life.

This government has had tunnel vision about economics and the environment, making them adversaries instead of necessary companions of a healthy and wealthy land. There are countless voices of economic leaders who are warning that economic health is impossible without environmental health.

Whatever changes are made to the greenbelt need to be changes of substance and not fluff and P.R.

My fear is that the changes will be meaningless, or worse, a step backwards while "greenwashing" the facts, as in the wetlands dispute. If that is the case, I will be out protesting, writing politicians, and doing all I can for the future of this province.

I hope you will do the right thing for now and for the future.