Ontario's Greenbelt is for…

Ontario's Greenbelt is for now the world's largest, protecting farmland, forests, wetlands, rivers, and lakes.

Protection and restoration of wetlands across the greenbelt are crucial to maintaining biodiversity and enhancing resilience to climate change. Wetlands provide vital ecological services, such as climate regulation (carbon storage and uptake), flood control, water filtration, erosion control, sediment retention and waste treatment, as well as wildlife habitats and opportunities for recreation.

These free natural services offer increased landscape resilience, lowering the direct financial investment needed for infrastructure developments like water filtration plants and flood control measures. The elimination of these ecosystems will often result in the need for higher investment to replicate these natural functions.

The health of the Greenbelt affects the quality of drinking water for more than seven million Canadians.
Irreplaceable natural assets make the region more climate resilient by absorbing rainwater and carbon dioxide.
Greenbelt agriculture drives the local economy; a permanently protected Greenbelt is essential to sustain a reliable source of food close to home.

What arguments can be made to lose the Greenbelt’s functions that would possibly outweigh its current benefits?