I submit the following in…

I submit the following in response to Question 5: How should we balance or prioritize any potential Greenbelt expansion with the other provincial priorities mentioned above?

Management of the Greenbelt is a vital question for our future because it plays a decisive role in maintaining and improving a healthy local food system, the physical, social and economic health of citizens, and climate resiliency.
While I support the expansion of the greenbelt, the Ontario government's action that simultaneously undermines it is a gross dereliction of duty.
As the threat of climate destruction becomes more imminent and the encroachment of urban development on our natural world increases, the likelihood of transmission of zoonotic diseases (such as COVID19) grows along with expectations of more pandemics in the future. Yet, your government chooses to favour profits of developers over protection of the Greenbelt. You have chosen to promote private interests over the needs of society.
You cannot maintain the integrity of the Greenbelt by undermining its protection, paving it over and prioritizing development over nature.
This is no way to manage the Greenbelt.
Ministerial Zoning Orders (MZOs) are being issued at an alarming rate. They are clearing the way for developments like the distribution centre and production facility in the Lower Duffins Creek wetland in Pickering, and the construction of Highway 413 cutting through the Greenbelt. There have been six new development deals in early March alone. Your government is favouring developers’ profits at the expense of farmlands, clean water, and endangered species. Your “management” of the Greenbelt is contributing to the loss of carbon sinks so vital to our future.
I join with those who are demanding that you put an end to policies that threaten the very existence of the Greenbelt.
I join with tens of thousands of other citizens who insist that you:
• repeal changes to the Conservation Authorities Act and Planning Act (Schedule 6, Bill 229 of the Budget Measures Act,)
• end the use of Ministerial Zoning Orders to expand development in the Greenbelt
• end plans to build Highway 413
• bring forward Bill 71, the Paris Galt Moraine Conservation Act, 2019 to provide protection of the Greenbelt and allow for expansion westward
• release the results of the 2017 public consultations on Greenbelt expansion
• stop the expanded use of individual carbon fuelled vehicle transportation
• end the promotion of urban sprawl with all its attendant greenhouse gas emission growth ramifications
• cease the destruction of natural carbon sinks.

Furthermore, I insist that you consult with, respect the rights of, and secure the agreement of Indigenous communities in expanding the Greenbelt within their traditional territories. Expansion of the Greenbelt cannot be used as an excuse to further encroach on Indigenous land and attack Indigenous rights.

It is not too late to reverse your course. I urge you to do so. Expand the Greenbelt and foster it with a socially responsible and nature based approach to Greenbelt management.