Last year the citizens of…

Last year the citizens of Hamilton clearly spoke that they do not want an expansion of the city boundary into adjacent green belt lands, but want increased density within the current borders of the city.

Expanding into the greenbelt will increase infrastructure costs for tax payers, but directly impacts Ontario's bio-security. We cannot continue to pave over fertile food producing farmland when the impacts of climate change have their foot in our door. Ontario must ensure that it continues to be able to feed it's current and growing populace. That cannot be done if farmland is paved over with single family housing developments. With ever increasing food costs, Ontario cannot rely on importing food in the future.

Hamilton, and Ontario must increase medium and high-density housing within existing city boundaries. Expansion into Greenbelt lands must be an absolute last resort. Viewing or walking through Hamilton's downtown allows you to see dozens of city block sized parking lots available for housing. Development at Pier 8 will add thousands of new homes of varying densities. Hamilton has room to expand within it's borders first. Once that space is filled, we can again revisit expansion outside existing city borders.