In 2005 the Greenbelt was…

In 2005 the Greenbelt was identified by the province as land that should be protected because of it’s important agricultural potential. Farmland loss in Ontario is increasing yearly despite protections, and the Greenbelt lands should not be part of this loss. There should not be an option to remove parts of the Greenbelt for development and “add new sections” elsewhere. Once agricultural land is converted it cannot ever be returned to arable land, meaning that this important farmland will be lost forever. Although there is a housing crisis, the ability to produce locally grown food is of equal importance to our communities in southern Ontario. Although Canada is a large country, only about 4.7% of our land is arable, with the majority of this land being in southern Ontario. If we allow conversion of some of the Greenbelt, what is to stop all of it from becoming housing developments in the future? There is space within our cities to build housing developments and creative thinking can allow for housing to be built in existing areas such as empty abandoned buildings, brownfields, above commercial buildings. With amenities in most cities concentrated to the downtown core or other high density areas, building housing outside our cities in Greenbelt lands would increase the need for the development of more grocery stores, doctors offices, gas stations, and other amenities within these new neighborhoods to service the people living there. This will end up costing the government/citizens of Ontario exorbitant amounts of money that could be avoided if the current government thought more critically about a solution to our housing crisis. More research should be put into the root cause of the housing crisis to examine the need for more affordable housing and the reality of why there is a housing crisis in Ontario before we permanently destroy essential agricultural lands.