As a resident, landscape…

As a resident, landscape architect, parent and park planner in a medium sized Ontario municipality for many years, I am most concerned about the changes to the Planning Act Sections 42 and 51 and other legislation changes that will affect parkland dedication. The charges will completely remove the ability of municipalities to provide adequate, humane amounts of parkland per person and they will fall significantly short of meeting their official plan parkland targets. Existing Places to Grow Act targets for municipalities outside the greenbelt and further legislative changes will dramatically escalate pressure from the development community to develop as many units per hectare as possible while at the same time the parkland rates to serve this increasing population will be dramatically falling. These actions are in stark contrast with well-known truths about healthy urban living. It has been scientifically proven that without adequate green space and trees in urban centres crime rates increase, mental health problems increase, overall quality of life and health of residents of all ages suffers. I have seen first hand the differences in various neighbourhood metrics in areas with and without adequate parkland. Reduced parkland will also hamper the economies of cities. Reasonably sized open spaces with decent amenities are a key factor in attracting good employees and businesses to a municipality. Many Ontario cities are great examples of this. Air quality, wildlife habitat and many other aspects of the environment will also be negatively affected. It will remove important tools for combating climate change. I strongly urge this government not to proceed with such damaging changes. Thank you for considering my comments.