I'm submitting this comment…

I'm submitting this comment to voice my opposition to Bill 66. My biggest opposition to the Bill is related to the inclusion of the proposed Schedule 10 of the plan, particularly the 'proposed open-for-business planning tool'. I am deeply concerned about the ability of municipalities to adopt an open-for-business by-law which would allow the municipality to override provincial planning policies. This is most troubling when it comes to the protection of the Greenbelt throughout Ontario. The Greenbelt is a provincial planning document and would be under threat from municipalities is this Bill is adopted. This government has already shown they are not-so secretly interested to free up this land for development, and are now using this tool to allow them to do so. As stated in the sub points of the by-law proposal, municipalities could use the by-law to, I quote 'remove the requirement for decisions to strictly adhere to provincial policies and provincial plans'. This means municipalities could overrule the Greenbelt plan and allow developers to build on the small amount of prime farmland we have left in Ontario. This is something we should firmly stand against.

The Greenbelt was brought into place for many reasons, and almost all of them are good. We should not risk threatening these lands by allowing municipalities to override the Greenbelt policies. Throughout southern Ontario we already have a huge issue with inefficient and poorly developed cities with an unruly amount of sprawl. Any urban planner would tell you this type of urban sprawl is bad for developing smart citites, bad for providing low-cost infrastructure, and bad for providing affordable public transit. Any policy that would threaten the Greenbelt and lead to more sprawl must be stopped. We need to smartly intensify our city, and this proposed by-law will simply allow developers to continue building cities in a way where urban sprawl is encouraged.

The Greenbelt is also vital for maintaining watersheds and having enough greenspace for water to be absorbed. Throughout southern Ontario we have had huge issues with basement flooding in homes because there is not enough land to absorb water when it rains. The Greenbelt helps to maintain green space and farmland so that there is more land to absorb water when it rains. The proposed bill would allow for more sprawl on what is now vacant green space and farmland, which will only mean more headaches for homeowners as they are are more risk of flooding, and are likely to see their insurance claims increase as more homeowners put in flooding damage claims.

There are some parts of this Bill which are fine, but in its current state I think it should be stopped. At a minimum, Schedule 10 should be removed to protect the Greenbelt.