I strongly oppose the…

I strongly oppose the opening of protected land in the Province’s Greenbelt to housing development, for the following reasons:
1. The Greenbelt deserves to be preserved to connect forest and wetland ecosystems which are otherwise disappearing in Ontario.
2. The Greenbelt includes some of Ontario’s best farmland which greatly impacts Ontario’s economy and culture.
3. According to the Globe and Mail, the Government promised 18 times between 2018 and 2021 not to remove land the Greenbelt.
4. The proposed developments will not improve Ontario’s Housing situation.
a. According to the Ontario Housing Affordability Task Force, a shortage of land is not the cause of the housing crisis.
b. The proposed projects involve a small number of extremely high value homes which will have no impact on the housing affordability of the average Ontarian
5. The proposed change is encouraging urban sprawl with its impacts on infrastructure and the environment. The housing situation would be better served by building up, not out, increasing densities within existing areas, not encouraging low density housing into new areas.
6. The process by which the land for development was selected has not been transparent. There are concerns about breaches of ethics that must be addressed before even considering the rezoning of the land.
7. Replacing the rezoned land with new territory is not valid. The idea that land can be removed, if replaced with other land is illogical. If land is continuously removed from the inside of the Belt is replaced on the outside fringe, then by extension, the Greenbelt could be pushed North to point we may be talking about housing developments in Algonquin Park.

Please reconsider the rezoning of the Greenbelt land.