As a trained architect and a…

As a trained architect and a design professional that works on residential developments in the city, I believe the proposal to redefine the greenbelt boundaries and develop on greenbelt is completely inhumane and wrong.

1) Developing on the greenbelt will not solve the housing issue. We need more affordable homes and developments within the city limits. No one will be able to afford the monster single detached homes which will be built by land developers. If we need more suburban neighbourhoods than build outside the greenbelt. The government should be investing in better and cheaper public transportation that can get people to and from work around the city. Make it easier/cheaper to take public transit than driving a car. It's a ridiculous thought that more rural developments are needed; use the abandoned buildings in Toronto and convert them to homes and bring back the industries to the city. Toronto doesn't need to spread, we need to densify because climate change and the future of the planet is more important than single detached homes.

2) Climate change. From all the growing scientific evidence and research and protests that are constantly being done, we still think, as a government, that it is ok to destroy and eliminate entire ecosystems? It's 2022, there are no excuses not to understand that preserving the greenbelt is more important than the housing crisis. If we don't slow down climate change and revise our ideologies and habits, there won't be a planet and/or people to luve on it and worry about housing. Forget the housing crisis, we need solutions that can forsure a healthy and viable future, not destroy what precious natural green space we have now.

There are other ways to deal with the housing crisis: politicians can easily look to the OAA for solutions, NOT money hungry developers, but professionals that have studied various social ideologies and have dedicated their careers to understanding the relationship between people, built forms and nature.

Building on the greenbelt is NOT the solution. We must protect the greenbelt as much as we can. As humans we are better than this, we have a responsibility to all other living species on the planet to fix OUR mistake. Climate change is a human issue, it's up to us to fix it.