As currently written, The…

As currently written, The Amendments to The Greenbelt Plan is a disaster for Ontario. As the climate crisis worsens, wetlands are essential to stave off expensive floods, and farmland is increasingly valuable - yet this bill would introduce a new and exciting way to sell off and destroy both.

We badly need to build more homes quickly - but they need to be built where existing infrastructure exists, increasing density and protecting against sprawl. This bill as currently written would instead commit Ontario to decades more of low-density sprawl, which is ultimately less affordable, more ecologically damaging, and less economically viable. Betting on suburbia in a time when we need to be looking towards a greener future is incredibly near-sighted and seems to point further towards the current government's interests on filling developers pockets rather than investing in the future of its citizens and the actual solutions of the general population. On top of that, why for example, most of the land selected for the land swap, has been earlier bought out by developers with a history of big PC donations, seems to be a curious, unexplained “coincidence”.

It is difficult to understand, and deeply concerning, that this bill seems to avoid any useful measures while instead prioritizing short-term pillaging of essential protected lands. Our government needs to be more future minded, with projects that support the ecosystem and help attain a safe and sustainable future for all residents, not just residents with cars and 6 figure incomes.

The Bill’s suggestion that anyone who wants to build on the purchased Greenbelt land, can do so, only if they come up with a speedy proposition and finish construction in record time, really shows you that “quality” is at the core of this bill…It is also an amazing tell of Doug Ford’s disregard for those affected by the Housing Crisis. Considering that the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing has already approved(in November 2022) 14,000 hectares of new land in Peel, York Region, Halton Region and Hamiltons boundary what is the reasoning for the Greenbelt land grab if not a blatant attempt to help PC developers collect early and quickly on their investments . Introducing this bill furthers the common belief that the current government has no intention of solving issues affecting most of the people living in their area of governance.

Frankly, the legislation as written is irredeemable, and I urge the committee to do all it can to scrap it and start over and to show real intent in fixing the Housing Crisis by consultations with real experts, urban planners, housing specialists (didn’t the governments own Housing Affordability Task Force say, that urban sprawl is NOT the solution to the Housing Crisis in their report from February 2022?).