There is already a 30-year…

There is already a 30-year supply of land for housing in the Greater Golden Horseshoe, so there is NO need to change the Greenbelt's boundaries, NOR remove any lands from the Greenbelt, which was envisioned to remain PERMANENTLY PROTECTED.

If you really want the public’s feedback on the Greenbelt, put the entire matter to a politically-binding public referendum.

Leave the existing Greenbelt Plan in place and do NOT remove any lands from the Greenbelt; however, the addition of 13 river valleys to the existing Greenbelt has long been discussed as the Bluebelt.

The existing Greenbelt should be expanded through the addition of the river valleys and the Paris-Galt Moraine. The Duffins Rouge Agricultural Preserve must also remain intact. Ontario has already lost far too much farmland, while agricultural lands continue to dwindle

The Ontario Farmland Trust reports:

“The total acreage of farmland in Ontario decreased from 12,348,463 in 2016 to 11,766,071 in 2021, averaging out to a decrease of approximately 319 acres of farmland lost per day during this time period. This rate of loss is almost double the 175 acres of farmland lost per day that was reported in the 2016 Census of Agriculture

The number of farms reporting to the Census in Ontario also decreased by over one thousand in this same time period, declining from 49,600 to 48,346.”

According to the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, “In 2019, Ontario’s agriculture and agri-food sector, from field to fork, contributed $47.28 billion to Ontario’s economy and supported 860,494 jobs. Decision makers must never lose sight of this reality when making decisions about future agricultural land loss to development for population and employment growth.”

Thanks to Ontario’s farmers, Ontarians were better fed and supplied with enough food during the pandemic, compared to other nations.

Only a fool would remove agricultural lands and supplant them with an ever-growing human population.

The Greenbelt also provides many ecological services to native species and humans alike.

If Ontario is building 1.5-million homes (averaging 3 to 4 people per household) for between 4.5 and 6.0 million new people, then it will need all the existing farmland to feed those millions of new mouths. Ontario will also have to beef up every service from education to healthcare, from libraries to parks, to serve so many newcomers. All will occupy a land base that is not growing. Ontario’s landscape is finite, so it is becoming increasingly congested, while being transformed rapidly and unsustainably.

One wonders how the provincial government came up with so many DETAILED MAPS for lands to be withdrawn from the Greenbelt within such a short time after the MMAH Minister's announcement. The public needs to know who prepared all those maps and when.

There are recent news' reports about how certain developers bought lands within the Greenbelt before the Minister's announcement to break up the Greenbelt, so it appears those developers have reaped their rewards. They purchased at a low price, and they would rewarded with a bonanza through automatic re-zoning since the Conservatives only serve developers. Developers' deductible political donations to the Conservative Party are pocket change by comparison to the multi-millions of dollars they stand to gain. It does make one wonder if those developers might have benefitted from ‘insider knowledge’, since they seem to have such a close relationship to the Premier and his Ministers. One might even begin to wonder about other unsavoury possibilities associated with influence peddling. Consequently, a review of Quebec’s Charbonneau Commission’s investigation into the dealings between that province’s construction industry and its cozy political connections could provide a very good template for a similar investigation here in Ontario.

Just leave the Greenbelt alone.