I am a Greater Toronto Area…

I am a Greater Toronto Area Secondary School student. The growth plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe, which amendments 1.2, 2.1, 2.2.1.4 f, 4.1, will alter, will affect my local community in a negative manner. My fear is that, these amendments will cause a reduction in attempts in creating a net-zero community and/or low-carbon community, which will eventually lead to an increase in the energy consumption of the community and the degradation of environmental resources. I would like the following amendments withdrawn, 1.2, 2.1, 2.2.1.4 f, 4.1. This is because as one stops attempting to create sustainable properties that can provide for their own energy consumption in a renewable way, it sets the mindset for the community to continue on a path further towards an anti-environmental, over-consuming society.

The manner in which these amendments reword certain phrases and completely delete some phrases make the guidelines very vague, this leaves it up to personal interpretation, which in the end may harm the environment and destroy the hopes of a creation of self-sustainable communities and a self-sustaining GGH. A specific example would be from 2.2.1.4 f, where it states, “is amended… by deleting ‘towards the achievement of low-carbon communities’ and replacing it with ‘to environmental sustainability’. This completely removes the specific clause that is meant to reduce the carbon emission created by the GGH and replaces it with something that is much more generic and can be interpreted in many ways. The amendments pointed out do not reflect the ideology behind the Greenbelt and the people of Ontario as a whole. This change can be viewed as an attempt to please the minorities in the housing communities that do not support a sustainable future.

Another important example is in 2.1, where it deletes necessary facts and actions the government of Ontario would like to take to reduce greenhouse emissions by replacing it with a sentence that does not explain the importance of what actions Ontario wants to carry out. Ontario wants greenhouse emissions lowered, with the use of net-zero communities. This replacement would remove the ideology of net-zero from the GGH’s development plans, when it is most likely the most important thing necessary of an environmentally sustainable future.

In conclusion, I can say that these amendments, 1.2, 2.1, 2.2.1.4 f, 4.1, must be withdrawn as they jeopardize my local community and GGH’s plans for an environmentally sustainable future that all of us can partake in.