Increasing the size of the…

Increasing the size of the Greenbelt comes down to a few simple actions:

1 It's impossible to expand the Greenbelt with one hand while destroying it with the other. This geopolitical sleight-of-hand fools no one. So stop handing critical natural lands over to developers, building 1950's sprawl-style suburbs and highways, and digging quarries on Greenbelt and Whitebelt lands. There is more than enough aggregate in current quarries for the next hundred years. We need smart housing and communities where people can work, shop, and go to school within 15 minutes of where they live. Avoiding sprawl is one of the major considerations for growing the Greenbelt.

2 Develop rail transportation, which is cheaper to build and maintain, more efficient for moving goods and people, far less polluting than highways, and encourages development at hubs instead of spread everywhere, thus saving farmland, forests, and the biodiversity which is a key feature of the Greenbelt.

3 Restore all the environmental legislature Ford's government cancelled and/or disrupted since his actions have opened up the Greenbelt and biodiversity to destruction and is counterproductive to expanding the Greenbelt.

Of course the Paris-Galt Moraine should be preserved and the protected area should be as large as possible. Of course urban river valleys should be expanded and protected beyond their current protections. So should the UNESCO Biosphere of the Niagara Escarpment. (Right now, Ontario has failed to comply with most of the guidelines for a Biosphere area.) All the current Greenbelt lands, including the so-called Whitebelt lands, that comprise Class One, Two and Three farmland, conservation areas, forests, wetlands and other IRREPLACEABLE earth elements should be expanded and permanently protected while restricting infrastructure to currently built areas. No waterways should be polluted with sewage and garbage – we need much better and more advanced technology for dealing with waste.

It is utter foolishness to pretend that human dwellings, big box stores, freight “villages”, and highways are more important than the nature and farmland upon which all life depends. Housing can always be relocated with creativity. For nature and farmland, there is NO replacement.