I am writing to express my…

I am writing to express my vehement opposition to the proposed removal or re-designation of 15 areas of land from the Greenbelt.

Lands within the Greenbelt are supposed to be protected permanently. Permanent protection is the underlying principle of the plan. If lands can be swapped in and out of the Greenbelt arbitrarily, the designation becomes a meaningless public relations exercise. What is purpose of adding new lands to the Greenbelt if any lands within it can be removed at the whim of the government of the day? It becomes little more than an exercise in greenwashing by the government.

Moreover, the premier, on more than one occasion, pledged not to remove lands from the Greenbelt. The government now attempts to justify breaking that pledge by stating that it is necessary to address the housing crisis. The is an outright falsehood as Ontario's Housing Affordability Task Force has already clearly stated that a shortage of land isn't at the root of the problem (p 10 of report). Ample land is available within existing municipal settlement boundaries. Clearly, the current proposal is not about addressing the housing crisis.

That can only lead one to conclude that the real purpose of the proposed removal of lands from the Greenbelt is to reward private developers. The role of the provincial government is supposed to be to serve the public interest, not to reward the speculative lands bets of private sector interests. The optics couldn't be worse.

The development industry needs to be sent a clear signal that Greenbelt lands are off limits, period. If the proposed removal of lands proceeds, it will send just the opposite message. Developers will rush to secure additional Greenbelt properties, comfortable in the knowledge that, if they apply enough pressure for long enough, their lands too will eventually be approved for development.

Unfortunately, this proposal is just one in a long list of attacks on environmental protection measures by the current Government of Ontario. The government leaders that are supposed to be carefully managing the province's resources in the public interest are, in many instances, upending the tables within their ministries and stripping environmental protections at every turn, much to the dismay of many public servants, I am sure.

Any majority government has a special obligation not to discharge the immense power it has in an autocratic manner. While a majority government may technically have the ability to push through almost any legislation it wants, running roughshod over municipal partners and the general public can only end badly. The people of Ontario having clearly expressed their desire to see Greenbelt lands permanently protected. Should the government choose to use its majority to ram these proposals through against the will of the people, it will only deepen the cynicism many have with respect to government. Do you really want to go down in history as the government that initiated the unravelling of the Greenbelt?

The public clearly sees through the pretext offered by the government for this action, and I call upon the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing to withdraw these proposals that would remove or re-designate 15 areas of land from the Greenbelt.