Over the past few years, the…

Over the past few years, the Ford government has repeatedly asserted it's stance in protecting the Greenbelt. With the escalation of the climate crisis, it has become increasingly important that Canada takes initiative and shows leadership in our participation and innovation in green solutions, including, but not limited to, sequestering greenhouse gases, namely carbon, and drawing it down to mitigate the effects of Global warming. Our protected and undeveloped land, the Greenbelt, plays a crucial role in this action.

The establishment of the boundaries of protected land of the Greenbelt was determined with connectivity front of mind. The land that was chosen is integrated by the life, the flora and fauna and the ecosystems that it is home to. Taking away pieces of this land to replace with other land tears apart these ecosystems and will have a negative, destructive effect on the health of the Greenbelt.

In addition to this damage, the Ford government's capitalization on the loophole found of adding land to the Greenbelt that is already protected by other means is a blatantly neglectful attempt to conceal the capitalistic motivation behind swapping out land. Instead of jeopardizing the health of our land for future development, a better solution to housing affordability worth exploring is increasing the efficiency and efficacy of existing developed land use, adapting our urban design to maximize housing potential rather than inefficiently using more of our land resources.

We must not unprotect land. This is a threat to our environmental integrity and a step in the wrong direction. Not only will it be harmful to the areas of the Greenbelt we will lose, it also sets a dangerous precedent for future land protections. I strongly oppose the passing of Bill 23. This proposed amendment to the Greenbelt, if passed, will be a failure by the Canadian government to keep its commitment to protect our land and resources, restore our environment, and reduce our carbon footprint as promised in the Canadian Net-Zero Emissions Accountability Act made law on June 29, 2021.