Hi there, I am a 21 year…

Hi there,

I am a 21 year old student studying at the University of Guelph. My home is back in Ajax but while studying here I have learnt a lot about climate change, mitigation strategies and carbon sequestration.

I believe that this idea and proposal although it sounds amazing for the build homes faster plan it will cause climate repercussions that we will not be able to pay back and thus suffer the consequences from.
The Greenbelt was put in place for a reason, it provides us with climate regulation, biodiversity, and carbon sequestration. This land is crucial to many species already at risk, and paving over part of it will only put these ecosystems at significant risk of collapse. This will lead to something called an extinction debt - when one species becomes extinct it affects the others that it interacts with, and when those go extinct, the species that rely on it will also disappear. This will continue to happen on large timescales but will be felt in the lack of clean air and water we will or won't have.
Additionally, the bill states that they will "swap in" land for the taken ones, but we cannot just expect that fragmenting these habitats will still make them sustainable. Actually one of the main drivers of endangerment and extinction is habitat fragmentation - therefore these small islands of habitat separated by highways, roadways, and housing will cause the habitats to become dead zones - an ecological term that means an unthrivable habitat without any species, so not a habitat.

Also, this is not a housing crisis, this is an affordability crisis and a lot of homes are vacant right now, just no one can afford them. Materials are so in short supply which will make these houses more expensive. Also if we are concerned about housing, these areas should not be zoned for single-family houses but for condos that can allow for less of a carbon footprint as well.

Additionally, you say you are only going to take away 7400 acres, but who says there won't be any more pressure from developers to keep going?

If you truly care about our future and this province you will inquire about the environmental and ecological impact this plan will have on us in the future.

This is no point in building houses in an area if in the future it is unlivable because of the conditions we have imposed on ourselves. It is time to start thinking about us and the environment as one, as each player affects one another.

Thank you for reading and I hope you take some of my points into consideration.

-Brooke