I strongly do NOT support…

I strongly do NOT support the proposal to allow 7.400 acres of Greenbelt land to become available for housing development. The Greenbelt Plan was created to prevent further loss of natural heritage, restrict urban sprawl, and protect prime agricultural areas including the Holland Marsh and the Niagara Tender Fruit and Grape Area. A cornerstone of the Greenbelt Plan is to permanently protect these areas so that they remain interconnected and intact, allowing wildlife and biodiversity to remain healthy. If chunks of the current Greenbelt are removed, the connection throughout the region will be broken up. Once prime farm land is gone, there is no getting it back. The loss of biodiversity is devastating to the environment and cannot be reversed. Not only are we facing a climate crisis, but we are losing biodiversity at an extremely alarming rate. The addition of 9,400 acres of land in a single chunk on the northwest border of the current Greenbelt will not provide a net benefit to the Greenbelt plan if the currently protected 7,400 acres are lost. Our communities need to have close access to nature and the farmland that feeds us. We cannot sustain healthy urban environments if that is taken away. It is also extremely important that the watersheds within the Greenbelt (such as the Oak Ridges Moraine) remain healthy and intact, in order to support a growing population and prevent future flooding due to climate related severe weather incidents. The health of our watersheds are vital to the environment that supports us, and I entrust their safety with the Greenbelt plan and Ontario's conservation Authorities. I believe that the Government's efforts to provide housing to new Canadians could be directed more wisely to the land that is currently available within established municipalities of Ontario, without the need to chop up the Greenbelt. Most Ontarians agree that the need for affordable housing is urgent, and the suburban sprawl that would be achieved with the proposed development on Greenbelt land would be detrimental. If Ontario ties up it's house-building resources in suburban expansion, it is taking away the resources that are necessary to supply housing where it is desperately needed most. The opening up of the Greenbelt for development will also set a terrible precedent to encourage land speculation for further destruction of the Greenbelt. It will also add to the current catastrophic un-affordability of housing that many many Ontarians are currently faced with. I strongly URGE Mr. Ford's government to repeal their proposal to build housing on the Greenbelt. It is clear that the proposed action will cause irreversible damage to our environment, including the air we breathe, the water we rely on, and the land the feeds us.