Dear Provincial Land Use…

Dear Provincial Land Use Plans Staff,
We, the citizens of Ontario are most upset with the Premier and his Government's proposal to eliminate the Growth Plan and make significant changes to the Provincial Policy Statement. We are also a part of the Simcoe County Environmental Groups.

We are upset and care deeply about the following negative IMPACTS that will occur:

- encouragement of sprawl
- loss of farmland
- less local control over how communities are built particularly with regard to density and climate action
- removal of "affordable" in housing definitions - makes it harder to track, identify and plan for
- increased powers within Minister's Office that will allow MZOs to bypass all local AND provincial policies
- reduced protection and study for watersheds before more development
- altogether will reduce climate action based on smart land use planning

Climate action is a must. We are seeing more and more how wetlands and watershed and forests protect us from flooding and other climate changes.

Please abandon this initiative in lieu of more consultation with municipalities, Indigenous governments, community organizations and other stakeholders to ensure that unintended consequences of these policy proposals are mitigated or avoided.

Please abandon plans to dissolve Simcoe County Regional government and instead give it more authority to support the various municipalities within the region that lack staff, financial.

Many Thanks for reading our concerns.