I’m against the development…

I’m against the development of the Greenbelt and believe this bill needs to be weighed out fully and carefully before irreversible damage is done to an area that should be protected.
Some of the reasons I would cite:
You are proposing the destruction of significant wetlands for the development of housing. This is increasing our sprawl. I believe that we need well thought out options for increased density (medium to high density) to better refine and connect our communities and alleviate the housing crisis. The idea is to use the infrastructure we already have in place and make it more functional to better serve and protect our people and families in the long run rather than to destroy untouched areas of our environment on an initiative that has no proven positive impact for citizens as time goes on and that may simply perpetuate community problems in a new area (without solving the real issues of housing presently or in the future).
There are many alarming environmental downsides to what you’re proposing as well – they cannot be denied and should not be ignored. I urge you to consider them. Habitats will be decimated through the destruction of significant wetlands and through floodplain infringement. The Greenbelt is worth protecting, not just because of its intrinsic natural worth and beauty, but because:
It can lead to the degradation of drinking water quality impacting communities across the board.
It’s some of the only untouched space for wildlife for the GTA and for residents to appreciate and enjoy.
The cooling effects of the Greenbelt will be taken away with no plan to remediate and with no consideration to the future toll that this will have on energy uptake in the GTA and surrounding regions. With increasing temperatures globally (and locally) we risk greater strain on our energy grid and even future shortages in some areas.
It’s difficult and expensive to build on greenfields. All services would have to be implemented from scratch: no sewers, no electricity, no water, no infrastructure for roads or transit, no schools. This puts a lot of pressure to increase development charges and taxation – money that could be better spent elsewhere for more effective and timely solutions that will better serve the general population.
We have no detailed impact assessments available (none at all have been attached about habitat destruction, flooding, food industry accessibility, or the financial impact to local governments).
I also feel like the proposal to move lands and open the Greenbelt to any kind of development is in poor taste to begin with. Housing ministers and other members of parliament have advocated for the protection of the Greenbelt even as recently as this year and last year only for all of this to now be flipped on its head. A number of ministers have noticeably gone against their word. How is this permissible in our democratic system? Political influence is not authorization to go against one’s word.
At its core, the bill may be duplicitous and as someone who was born and raised in Ontario, I do feel disheartened. Many citizens have begun calling this a “land grab” and while I hesitate to use this phrase, I can no longer disagree given that development has already begun in some protected areas. What precedent does this set? By destroying significant sections of the world’s largest protected greenspace, we are ultimately opening up an entire collection of sensitive ecosystems for development in the near future. I do not speak for all Ontarians but I do strongly believe that the people of this province deserve greater transparency and a voice to contend with those initiatives that are currently being so emphatically pushed without proper public input and without the due diligence of research, discussion, analysis, deliberation and, most significantly, consensus.
Understand that even the most patient of citizens are now losing their faith in their political representatives who they believed would be protecting them, their families, the environment, and the well-being of all current and future Ontarians by safe-guarding their best interests and not jumping ahead to make changes that have not met public approval and unbiased expert input.
I strongly urge representatives to reconsider these actions. The Greenbelt must remain protected. The housing crisis must be met with alternative effective and ethical solutions.
Thank you for your time and consideration.