This move to open up an area…

This move to open up an area that is supposed to be permanently protected is counter productive to: (1) the intent of protection of the lands and keeping it protected in perpetuity; (2) efforts to limit urban sprawl and undo poor planning of the past; (3) allowing municipal infrastructure management in a cost effective way and more sustainable way; (4) working towards environmentally conscious decisions including public transportation efforts being made across the province.

We need to be building density not sprawl. Swapping lands - the untouched with ones that cannot be developed because they are in flood plains (as an example) is not a zero net damage case as it is made to be to justify taking away chunks / land protections from the greenbelt. We have plenty of area that is unbuilt withing existing settlement areas that do not include the greenbelt and the forecasted immigration levels are not a valid reason.

This decision seta a horrible presidence for protecting the environment and for a government to be fitted with a label of having done this unprecedented move (not new for this government). The Greenbelt is not a complete reserve of enough land that we can draw down as long as we add more to replace it. The Greenbelt protects a particular portion of vital, must-preserve land that is under the greatest development pressure, and keeps it affordable and viable for sustainable farming by virtually guaranteeing that no matter how lucrative it would be to bulldoze, it will always be off limits for sprawl.

Agreeing to carve off portions of Greenbelt land at the request of sprawl developers paints a target on every part of the Greenbelt and makes the land too expensive and unpredictable for sustainable farming. In Canada our farming land is already precious. We saw first hand during the start of the panic how our American neighbors left us with out ppe while they kept stocks to themselves. We can use all the food security we can get and this opening up the greenbelt undermines that.