The citizens of the Region…

The citizens of the Region of Waterloo worked long and hard on an Official Plan for the Region. This plan emphasized not using our farmland to develop on and that there was enough land available to develop. The citizens of the Region value our farmland, it is some of the best farmland in Canada. We know that we are in a global climate crisis and we know that we cannot depend on other countries to feed us in the future. We must be food secure. This means not building or developing on our best farmland!
In the Region of Waterloo, much of our water comes from ground water. If we develop on farmland around our cities, we will become water insecure. Either there will not be enough undeveloped land for the water to seep into the aquifer or the aquifer may become polluted by industrial runoff. Elmira's aquifer was polluted by industry so now Elmira has a pipeline to pipe water from the Kitchener-Waterloo water system. The general consensus is that the Elmira aquifer will never be restored enough to provide drinking water.
How and where we develop our cities must be based on good planning. We need to keep our prime agricultural land and protect our water supply. I don't see that happening with Bill 162.