I am writing in to have my…

I am writing in to have my opposition for land swapping in the Greenbelt known. The Greenbelt, as it is, is an important ecological feature for Ontario. It provides not only protection to valuable agricultural land, but also wild life and wetlands. Lets look at the value of having wetlands for a moment. Wetlands act as giant water filtering sponges. They absorb excess water run off and filter the water, taking out pollutants and helping to protect our drinking water. Wet lands in the Greenbelt currently provide $224 million dollars per year in flooding protection in Ontario-1. Paving over and developing sections of wetland not only will lead to increased flooding in new developments but also existing housing. Losing wet land also put the supply of clean water at risk. Without wetlands to filter water, we will see a build up of toxins and sediment in our waterways.
Building houses in the Greenbelt also means that valuable agricultural is lost forever to housing. In an environment where global food security and trade can't be counted on, just take the Ukraine war for example and the affects it's had on global wheat supply, building houses and paving over the best soils in the country is beyond stupid. Once housing is built on agricultural land, it is lost forever to food production. The agriculture GDP in Ontario is the largest of the provinces at $15.3 billion dollars-2. By continuing to allow development on sensitive agricultural lands the provincial government is putting this at risk. Development means that as land is lost forever to development, farmers lose their ability to make a living through more land competition, increased land rents, increased cost of purchasing available lands and having to pay more in fertilizer to farm poorer quality land. Just as importantly, as farm land disappears, it puts this province, and country, in jeopardy of not being able to feed ourselves. After all you can't grow the same crops in Northern Ontario that you can in southern Ontario. Urban sprawl is the second largest cause of lost farm land on the planet.
So where are we going to get new houses for the population who needs housing? The answer is within the cities we already have. Cities such as Halton and Hamilton had already vote to not extend their urban boundaries and to instead densify what land they have to work with. This I believe is the much better answer than moving land in the Greenbelt. By having cities work with individuals, investors and developers to add infil development, housing needs can be met. By making garden suites and laneway houses a right, in cities we can add supply. By having cities open to changing zoning to allow for multi use buildings (looking at you Toronto) we can add housing. Allowing investors and individuals to turn a single family home into a duplex or triplex we can add far more units across the GTA, using infrastructure that is already present.

1-https://www.greenbelt.ca/learn
2-https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/190730/dq190730a-eng.htm