This plan is completely…

This plan is completely unacceptable, and violates the public’s interest on several counts.

Here I outline the most important five issues:
- Violation of an election promise and the legitimacy of the provincial election
- Violation of municipal governments and community self-determination
- Lack of need for Greenbelt Land to solve the housing crisis
- The financial burden of urban sprawl on the taxpayers in the targeted municipalities
- The environmental impact of sprawl and loss of local farmland

Premier Ford promised the public that he would not touch the Greenbelt. His election is therefore predicated on that promise. This proposed plan is a violation of that promise, in direct opposition to the will of the voters. By showing that election promises can be so casually violated, this proposal undermines the very legitimacy of democratic elections in this province.

Municipal governments across Ontario have created land use plans, based on democratic processes such as ballot initiatives and referenda. Most of these municipalities were told by their electorate: “Stop the sprawl, don’t touch the greenbelt.” The proposed plan would overrule municipal authority across Ontario. It is an overreach of provincial government power, and symbolic to the voters that we cannot trust municipal democracies. It undermines our capacity to determine and guide our own priorities as communities.

The housing crisis is real and should be one of our highest priorities, but studies have clearly shown that we have the land we need inside urban boundaries. Violating the Greenbelt solves nothing.

Urban sprawl requires far more infrastructure per capita to support. They are financially inefficient to support, requiring outside subsidy or unappealingly high property taxes. This will make these developments a financial burden on the taxpayers in the urban areas of the targeted municipalities for decades to come.

The environmental impact of increasing sprawl, as well as the loss of local farmland, is significant. Given the environmental crisis in southern Ontario and the climate change crisis in the wider world, the proposed plan is incredibly short-sighted and self-destructive.

The proposed plan cannot be allowed to go forward. It is completely unacceptable to the public on several counts. Thank you for your time in reviewing this comment.