Dear Ministry of Natural…

Dear Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry members,

While I understand there is a huge housing crisis in Ontario at the moment, I feel obligated to write to stress the point that there are better solutions to this problem than expanding into sensitive wetland areas, or other environmental areas of the greenbelt. The importance of these areas to the environment, and to all Ontario's people is irreplaceable. To stress this point I'll leave a link to your own site (below: link #1)

Here you stress the importance of preserving these green spaces, and why it is so important. As well as highlighting your promises to step up the protection of these incredibly impactful parts of our Ontario wilderness. To be frank, building urban spaces close to these green spaces can be enough to harm or destroy them (from leaching of common chemicals such as herbicide or pesticides, road salt, fertilizers for grass); all can have catastrophic impacts on such environments. But to build over them would be even worse. We need these spaces that act as natural filters for our drinking water, we need the space for wildlife to thrive to keep our environment healthy, and we need places for ourselves to go to see and learn about Ontario.

To conclude, I ask you to reconsider this bill and look to alternative methods and solutions to the problem. I will also link this study by the UofT addressing the problem, which suggests simply building more houses will not combat the existing crisis nearly enough to solve it (below: link #2)

Thank you for your time, and I hope that we can make Ontario better.