As a lifelong resident of…

As a lifelong resident of Ontario, I very strongly oppose any residential development of any part of the Greenbelt. Protecting these lands has long been - and always will be - extremely important for the health and prosperity of our province. The Greenbelt provides ecological services whose value is, practically-speaking, incalculable. Most importantly, these protected lands provide pollination services to agricultural crops and flood prevention for existing residential areas. Protecting the Greenbelt is also vital to making our province resilient to climate change and extreme weather.

We cannot simply "replace" developed parts of the Greenbelt with newly-protected land elsewhere: any two acres of protected land are not equivalent to one another in the way that dollars are. This is not a sustainable plan, and it is disastrous for the future of the province.

The solution the province must seek is ** DENSITY **. Our province must incentivize developers to build more housing in city centres. Not only can we not afford to lose valuable protected land, but we also lack the infrastructure to sustainably support such large suburban populations. Instead, Ontario should densify urban centres, expand public transportation, and add to existing protected areas without subtracting from them first.

DO NOT tell municipalities what to do with their boundaries. Please leave this up to their citizens to decide. Please maintain even a mote of respect for democracy in this province.