The Greenbelt is to be…

The Greenbelt is to be highly valued! It is a vestige of hope for clean air, clean water, clean soil, clean food, as well as food security, in a tiny fragment of remaining healthy ecosystem. People value the Greenbelt for its many connections to Nature. It seems that the Government of Ontario no longer believes in our rights to the above and rejects the ecosystem functions and services that the Greenbelt provides. The government seems willing to sacrifice them to the greed of land developers.

The Greenbelt was originally delineated for its intrinsic importances which Ontarians want permanently protected. It was a continuous, provincial, natural heritage system of healthy, functioning ecosystems, an important legacy for the people of this province. Yet the Ontario government wants to remove 7,400 acres of farmland and natural areas. I am vehemently opposed to this!

Food security should be a top priority for the government. Much of the land to be removed from the Greenbelt is farmland. This is unthinkable! Agricultural land is finite and disappearing at an alarming rate! And the best is disappearing the fastest. This is unconscionable. The government should be protecting our agricultural land. People want food grown locally, not shipped from distant shores, employing fossil fuels and producing greenhouse gasses which fuel climate change. Farmers invest in their lands, many taking measures to mitigate climate change, such as creating and enhancing wetlands. Loosing these lands wound diminish the fight against our changing climate. Breaking up the Greenbelt will have land speculators buying up farmland for future development, thus removing access to that land by farmers and future farmers. This will jeopardize Ontario’s agricultural system.

The government should follow the advice of its own Ontario Affordable Housing Task Force which said that there was plenty of land within urban areas ready for development. Municipalities in the GGH surrounding the Greenbelt have already designated over 88,000 acres of land for development. This land provides ample space serviced by planned infrastructure, on which to build affordable homes. A significant amount of taxpayer dollars have already gone into the development of these plans. The addition of more lands for development is not only unnecessary, it will require municipalities to spend more resources reviewing and updating their official plans and expanding infrastructure to areas for which it has not been planned.

Diminishing the rights of municipal and regional councils, as well as others to refute boundary decisions is anti-democratic. The democratic process is fundamental to Ontario and to Canada.

Preventing Conservation Authorities from performing one of their main, mandatory functions, to prevent and mitigate flooding, in part by consulting with local and regional governments, is inconceivable.

I want Bill 23 and its supporting Act and policy changes withdrawn.