To: Environmental Registry…

To: Environmental Registry of Ontario
Re: ERO # 019-3136 Consultation on growing the size of the Greenbelt
Thank you for promising to grow the Greenbelt. I support including the Paris Galt Moraine and public lands in urban river valleys as part of the Greenbelt. However, Ontario should be doing much more than that to build resilience to climate change, and to protect our groundwater, the headwaters of our river systems, and the precious little that remains of farmland and natural areas across the Greater Golden Horseshoe (GGH).
Ontario should take a science-based approach to expanding the Greenbelt which errs on the side of protection, and is focused on ensuring:
safe and abundant drinking water and local food for the 14 million people expected to live in the Greater Golden Horseshoe by 2051;
protection of our local wildlife and ecosystems;
resilience to climate change impacts such as flooding and drought, and;
places for recreation and recharge for the millions who live in our towns and cities.
To this end, I am requesting, in particular, that the Greenbelt be expanded to include: all moraines within the GGH; private lands as well as public lands within urban river valleys; coldwater streams, wetlands and headwaters; the former shorelines and plains of ancient glacial Lakes Algonquin and Iroquois; surviving agricultural land outside present settlement areas, and the Lake Simcoe basin and northern Simcoe County.
I also urge the government to cancel plans to build Highway 413 (GTA West) and the Bradford Bypass (Holland Marsh Highway), and to cancel plans to allow the expansion of the Nelson Aggregate quarry on the Niagara Escarpment, all of which would directly destroy large swathes of Greenbelt lands and create pressure for more sprawl. Those projects are incompatible with your public commitment to protect existing Greenbelt lands. The government should amend the Greenbelt Plan to make it clear that such projects must be kept outside the Greenbelt from now on.
Our own health and the health of the environment go hand in hand. We all depend on the health and biodiversity of the natural world. Let us work together with our environmental experts and conservation authorities to protect, restore and conserve Ontario's natural environment for the long term.