The proposed plan to re…

The proposed plan to re-designate greenbelt space is poorly thought out, and lacking in some rather important information.

The provided maps were used to identify the geographic areas of interest (with some difficulty, given no coordinates were provided), and a subsequent cursory evaluation of the farmland to forest/wetland ratio was performed. This qualitative analysis shows an average of a 1:4 ratio of farmland to forest/wetland in the proposed removal areas, vs an approximate 2:1 ratio in the proposed addition areas. The government has also failed to indicate how much of this proposed addition area will be designated a Natural Heritage System, as opposed to an Agricultural System (as defined by the the Greenbelt Plan). Given that most of this land is already farmland, it seems unlikely the Ontario government would designate these areas as Natural Heritage Systems. This is not acceptable.

At the very least, the "Addition Map A" and the proposal itself should include the total area of land to be designated as Natural Heritage Systems as well as Agricultural Systems (rather than "Protected Countryside", as labeled on the provided maps). Moreover, those newly designated areas of Natural Heritage systems should at least be of equal area to those being removed or redesginated.

Equal areas of "Protected Countryside" are not enough, as the disproportionate removal of Natural Heritage Systems areas renders the Greenbelt moot. Current and future governments will repeatedly shift the greenbelt outwards into rural farmland to provide room for housing developments, further degrading the area of Natural Heritage Systems available in urban areas as most of these areas are farmland.

I urge this government to reconsider its approach, as it is not an answer to the housing crisis, neither in the short or long term. It is merely a continuation of the urban sprawl the GTA has been subject to since its formation, and will only lead to further destruction of much needed urban/suburban greenspace in the process.