Ontario's Greenbelt is…

Ontario's Greenbelt is valuable for a whole number of reasons, not least of which is that its creation stands as an acknowledgement of the significance of green spaces to the sustainability of human and animal life in this province. For many Ontarians, the Greenbelt has become as much part of our identity as Medicare is to Canadians. It’s where we go to walk and enjoy the natural world, to get out of urban centres; it’s a major attraction for tourists to Ontario. Yet the Ford government seems as intent on destroying our few remaining environmentally critical spaces as it is in dismantling our public healthcare. My question is why?

Nobody believes your pathetic excuse about a housing crisis that suddenly demands not a serious, considered plan to assist municipalities in delivering a diversity of truly affordable housing types, including rental, but rather that 50,000 homes be erected on land in the Greenbelt, the very Greenbelt you promised in 2018 not to touch. If the housing crisis has worsened since then -- and it has -- it is not because the rich cannot find homes. The rich can always find housing; they don’t need precious Greenbelt lands. Nor is it because there isn't enough land within urban boundaries already designated and even serviced for new housing. Why aren't you pressuring developers whose projects within urban boundaries and already approved by municipalities, haven't moved forward?

We need an even larger Greenbelt area to fully protect our source water, because over-extending suburban developments has put enormous pressure on water services. Water quality ratings get worse every year -- but of course you're also neutering the Conservation Authorities that do the detailed reporting on .water quality, watershed by watershed. I guess you figure a Walkerton can't happen again.

Not only can it happen again, but the rapid expansion of development in the GTA/Greater Golden Horseshoe make a similar disaster only a matter of time. The difference between then and now is our awareness of the speed with which global warming is affecting our weather, our climate, our environment and biodiversity, and our potable water. Think what the legacy of the Ford administration might be if you exhibited real care and concern for a sustainable future for all Ontarians as climate change advances, instead of trying to pretend it’s something the next non PC government can deal with. If we don't take action now, by extending the Greenbelt and taken serious measures to retain and protect what little remains of our wetland and forests, then we're going to find ourselves in real trouble. And that will be the legacy of the Ford government.