To the Government of Ontario…

To the Government of Ontario,

The Proposed amendments to the Greenbelt Area boundary regulation (ERO number019-6217)
in reference to alteration of the Greenbelt Act, 2005 to facilitate the mandates of the “More Homes Built Faster plan” lacks alignment with the broader Canadian vision of developing sustainable and eco-friendly solutions to the housing crisis in a manner that limits environmental impacts and global warming. The plan to establish 1.5 million houses over the next 10 years by reducing the greenbelt and allocating one-off new greenbelt lands in Wellington County lacks foresight and adds additional risks of environmental degradation as well as impediments to vital wildlife corridors (e.g., Proposed Modifications Map 7). While we can all appreciate the housing crisis, amendments to remove greenbelt lands are not the solution. The proposed plan is shortsighted in terms of finding viable solutions to a clearly increasingly difficult problem. How does the province’s vision for the future of the Greater Golden Horseshoe Region (GGHR) plan to addresses housing in years to come when population levels in this region begin to more closely align with some of the largest cities in the world? There are only so many extra pieces of land in the area to remove, which is to say a finite solution. The present plan as proposed has no clear vision as to how the increased density of population around the GGHR will be addressed but rather seeks a quick solution to a perennial problem. While the addition of equal or greater greenbelt lands outside of the proposed areas of redesignation is a step in the right direction, one does wonder how soon these new greenbelt lands will also be re-designated for development once additional housing becomes necessary in Wellington County and surrounding areas. Simply allocating additional lands in areas of limited present development to remove vital lands where they currently exists, and which were designated as greenbelt lands for a reason, is not a viable or convincing solution. By this measure greenbelt lands might as well be allocated in Moosonee so that housing can be realised in the GGHR! It is for this reason that I am submitting this comment on the proposed amendments to express my disagreement with the Proposed amendments to the Greenbelt Area boundary regulation (ERO number019-6217) as presented