RE: ERO notice 019-6216…

RE: ERO notice 019-6216
Building 50,000 new homes in the Green Belt will not provide nearly enough houses for the 1.5 million newcomers expected to come to the GTA area in the near future. But, it will certainly provide lots of money for the developers and construction companies involved and in turn for the coffers on the Ontario Conservative Party.

Housing development also leads to commercial and industrial development, the proliferation of highways and roads, the creation of heat islands, urban sprawl, increased carbon emissions from buildings and vehicles and thus further exacerbation of global warming. Paving over parts of the Holland Marsh will also cause more flooding in the GTA, less availability of local farm produce, and problems with water purification for the area.

By destroying the Green Space promised to us by a former Ontario Government, the present government is destroying our faith in any proposals and promises made to us by this or any future governments. It makes it clear that anything can be reversed, that any promise can be broken, any law made be one government can be reversed by another, and any faith we may have that our elected governments have our best interests at heart is dashed. So, what faith can we have that this government will stop destroying the Green Belt with this current proposal? What is to stop them from coming back for more destruction, for more construction, for more sprawl? Nothing, if they are not stopped now.

I wrote a letter to Premier Doug Ford last March with copies to several cabinet members about my opposition to the building of the Bradford Bypass. I did not get a reply from anyone. Not even an acknowledgement. I really do not have faith that this missive will have any impact either. But I thought it was worth a last shot.