Yes! It is vitally…

Yes! It is vitally important to expand the Greenbelt.

This begins by preserving the Greenbelt that has been established and by building upon this cornerstone provision. Geographic continuity and integrity are fundamental values to honour. This established, it is possible to broaden the horizons in a natural and organic manner.

While mention has been made of the Paris Galt Moraine, to focus on this one moraine without including the other two moraines that constitute the backbone integrity of this geo-ecological system and watershed is equivalent to attempting to sit on a stool with just one leg. Two other legs belong to this stool, namely, the Waterloo Moraine and the Orangeville Moraine.

Attention to geographic maps and charts confirms that the Paris Galt Moraine protects and defines the western flank of the Grand River and the eastern arm of the backbone triumvirate that is our life integrity guarantee. The Orangeville Moraine constitutes the northern definition, and the Waterloo Moraine completes this natural-featured triangle by essentially connecting the Orangeville Moraine in the north and the Waterloo Moraine in the west to form a triangle with its peak pointed in the general direction of Lake Erie.

Inspection of the Grand River watershed reveals that it includes the total or portions of the following counties: Haldimand, Norfolk, Brant, Oxford, Hamilton, Waterloo, Perth, Halton, Wellington, Dufferin, and Grey. Thus these municipalities must be party to the formation and extension of a Greenbelt with a true western territorial integrity.

Acknowledgement that this watershed has known drought some ninety years ago, that several municipalities draw all their water from the Grand River, that local Brant-Brantford endeavours to form a conservation society led to the 1948 establishment of conversation authorities, and that frequent mention is made of introducing water into this area via pipeline from one of the Great Lakes (particularly Lake Huron), determines the imperative of expanded Greenbelt integrity. Failure to protect and preserve this integrity renders foolish all endeavours to increase the growth and population within this territory.

Agricultural land is irreplaceable and climatic disruption confirms the wisdom of ensuring abundant local food supply and preservation resources in close geographic proximity. Here is another fundamental value; first, natural geographic "infrastructure", secondly, water, and thirdly, local food security. Failure to confirm these three values as sine qua non for all conversations confirms the presence of frivolous engagement. Only upon such primal foundations can sustainable "development" be considered without betraying folly on the part of those leading such endeavours.

(Incidentally, it may be wise to acknowledge that the word "development" is a cheap, commercialized substitute for the truth, namely, that activities popularly designated "development" are more honestly named as Land Productivity Deprivation (LPD) because the land is a massive living organism than cannot be healthily reduced to commercial and commodity status as the word "development" suggests. Thus I encourage every instance of the word "development" in this total Greenbelt expansion exercise be footnoted as "Land Productivity Deprivation" to convey the truth of these actions to the total geo-ecological system and territory.)

Ensure that all conversations of Greenbelt expansion include the concept of the health and healing value of natural spaces. The value of this consideration is affirmed in the activities of persons during this pandemic period. We need nature in order to be whole ourselves. A fragmented natural provision invites fragmented human and system health.

As Wendel Berry sagely remarked, "There are no un-sacred places; there are only sacred and desecrated places."

The decisions that are made in this Greenbelt expansion exercise will determine whether the actions taken will be desecrating in and of nature, or honouring sacred spaces that breathe and sing with life celebrating holiness.