The plan to decimate part of…

The plan to decimate part of the greenbelt to make way for housing is unethical, lazy, and villainous.

There are many other avenues that can be better navigated to secure housing for those that need it.

There numerous cities with grey zones could be utilized better and reimagined as housing, which would be helpful in revitalizing and reinvigorating struggling communities.

There are people who own multiple properties as rentals. With rent prices as high as they are, this robs tenants of any opportunity to set aside money to be able to purchase or build a house, as well as creates an overly competitive housing market by limiting the opportunities to purchase these properties.

Within this umbrella of owning multiple properties, you also have cottagers, or part time Canadian residents who only use said properties for 3-4 months a year, the rest of the year remaining dormant.

Why can there not be limits on the amount of properties one can own to create more opportunities for those who need housing to acquire it?

For larger houses, there could be a subsidy or incentive for families looking to purchase or share a multigenerational home.

With this being said, the primary reason this is such a terrible plan is it sets the precedent that if another housing crisis is to occur, greenbelt lands could be exterminated in the future for further development, which in turn effects the ecosystem, communities, and us humans existing within these systems.

Living in the Golden Horseshoe, it should be our responsibility to protect these lands and what they have to offer. No other territory in Canada can boast the fertility that these lands have to offer and yet it is constantly squandered away for housing and vineyards. A time may come where we may need to rely heavily on these lands and yet, with so little foresight they are consumed to quickly make money without thought of the major impacts this can carry for our children and generations to come.

In summation, there are so many other ways in which the housing crisis can be solved without cutting into lands allotted to be untouched, this should not be the only option, and if it is thought to be, then as a country some crucial thinking needs to go into what we are doing wrong to merit marring such a huge part of our ecosystem, and the natural beauty that this countries reputation was founded on.