I am writing to express my…

I am writing to express my deep concern about the “More Home Built Faster” proposal which will have a dramatic and unnecessary impact on Ontario’s Greenbelt.
The plan calls for the removal or redesignation of 15 areas in the Greenbelt totalling 7,400 acres, much of it vital farmland and sensitive wetlands.
This action will do little to add to Ontario’s housing stock (and certainly not its affordable housing stock) but will punch holes in the vital Greenbelt in such a way as to weaken it as an essential bulwark against climate change and flooding.
And, while the plan calls for the land to be clawed back should developers not make use of it by 2025, only the most naive would believe anything but that the land once removed, is removed forever. And although the plan calls for land swaps, the loss of the Greenbelt’s integrity defeats its very purpose, which is to protect farmland and curb urban sprawl. The substitute acreage won’t achieve these goals — it is not a like-for-like swap.
I live in Hamilton, and the parcels proposed for removal in this area contain prime farmland and natural features that must be protected to ensure food security, climate resilience, protection of biodiversity, wetlands & waterways. Once gone, they are gone forever.
Even more outrageous is the reality that the expansion into the Greenbelt is completely unnecessary and will incur huge costs to taxpayers. These areas are unserviced and will increase infrastructure costs for decades to come.
Furthermore, there are no requirements to build affordable housing.
The City has already developed a viable plan to accommodate urban growth to 2051 within the existing urban area on brownfields, already approved developments and through the encouragement of creative “missing middle” growth within City limits. City planners have made it clear they oppose this plan. If the proposal goes ahead, the high tax base in downtown areas of the city will have to subsidize the sprawl at the edges.
As well, the financial burdens of such ineffective and inefficient sprawl will be borne, not by the developers who profit from the sprawl, but by Hamilton and Hamiltonians.
I have been reading and listening to reaction to this plan since it was first put forward. I am not aware of anyone, aside from those who would profit from it, who is in favour of this plan. Neither farmers, municipal politicians, urban geographers, labour unionists, city planners, nor ordinary citizens — let alone environmentalists. And, as a recent Globe and Mail editorial pointed out, the fact that developers seemed to be prescient about what Greenbelt lands they should buy just prior to this plan being made public means the whole thing has the strong whiff of corruption on it.
I urge the Ontario Government to reject this proposal and, instead, listen to the municipalities and people of Ontario and come up with a more rational plan to deal with our housing needs.