Per the province's own…

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019-6216

Identifiant (ID) du commentaire

75570

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Individual

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Commentaire

Per the province's own report "Report of the Ontario Housing Affordability Task Force"

"But a shortage of land isn’t the cause of the problem.
Land is available, both inside the existing built-up areas
and on undeveloped land outside greenbelts.
We need to make better use of land. Zoning defines what
we can build and where we can build. If we want to make
better use of land to create more housing, then we need
to modernize our zoning rules. We heard from planners,
municipal councillors, and developers that “as of right”
zoning – the ability to by-pass long, drawn out consultations
and zoning by-law amendments – is the most effective tool
in the provincial toolkit. We agree"

"Greenbelts and other environmentally sensitive areas must be protected, and
farms provide food and food security. Relying too heavily
on undeveloped land would whittle away too much of the
already small share of land devoted to agriculture. "

The stated goal of 1.5 million homes in 10 years can be achieved without using any of the protected land from the Greenbelt. The Greenbelt serves not only to protect what little agricultural land we have left but also important functions such as flood prevention and water filtration. Why are we removing environmental protections when we do not need to in order to achieve our goals?