I am extremely concerned by…

I am extremely concerned by the government's plan to remove protected land from the Greenbelt and open it up to development. Ontario needs to protect our remaining agricultural and natural land, to ensure food security, biodiversity, flood management, and the opportunity for future Ontarians to experience the wilderness that makes our province a great place to live.

As the 2017 Greenbelt plan pointed out, we should be aiming for compact and walkable communities, protecting agricultural lands for long-term food security of our population (Southern Ontario has particularly good soil and climate for agriculture), protecting water resources to ensure we always have enough clean drinking water and healthy aquatic ecosystems, and protecting what areas of wilderness remain in Southern Ontario to support biodiversity and access for most Ontarians.

I think it is egregious that partisan political donors lobbied for these changes and were informed of them before the public. The fact that developers took out high-interest loans to buy up protected wilderness speaks of a shocking degree of corruption. But it also shows that the government is auctioning off the resources that we should be responsibly stewarding for future generations.

Allowing development of current Greenbelt lands without proper environmental consultation may lead to harming populations of species at risk, damaging water cycles that provide for drinking water and flood control, or otherwise doing long-term harm to the province.

Furthermore, building single-family homes in far-flung subdivisions will not provide the housing Ontario needs to resolve our current housing and affordability crisis. The government's housing affordability task force report said that Ontario needs densification, and Toronto already has the longest commute times in North America. Continuing to build expensive houses far away form city centres will solve neither problem.

This plan will permanently destroy undeveloped lands, will not achieve the stated goal of housing affordability, and stinks of corruption and backroom deals. Please protect our agricultural and wilderness lands and do not put up ill-thought-out developments for a quick profit.