The Greenbelt allows…

The Greenbelt allows everyone in the GTA to make a choice of where they would like to live and work. Being that the bulk of the jobs in Ontario are located in Toronto, anyone can still live in the country and work in the city. Suburban sprawl has already taken over the entire area of most of the towns surrounding Toronto but the Greenbelt has maintained a level of rural life and activities within commuting distance of these highly developed areas. And this rural life includes important areas for the quality of life or urban citizens, including agriculture, horticulture, parks, trails, and most of the outdoor recreation activities enjoyed by the people of the GTA.

Developing the Greenbelt is just a cheap, easy way for developers to make money on relatively easy to develop land. Most of the development in the last 20 years around the GTA has been the farms of York, Durham and Peel. But the easy pickings have been paved over and now the developers want what is left. Climate change is now the civilized world's biggest threat. Development of the Greenbelt will just contribute more to suburban sprawl, traffic congestion, long commuting times (already near the longest in North America), increased air and water pollution, and ultimately increased climate change. If affordable housing in needed, a provincial plan to encourage industry to locate to central and eastern Ontario would allow jobs and houses in affordable areas.