Mr. Premier, Your decision…

Mr. Premier,

Your decision to attempt to backtrack on your promise to keep hands off the Greenbelt is concerning. Yet, in addition to deciding Hamilton’s fate by overturning Hamilton’s Official Plan decisions, you are threatening to take more unnecessary lands from the Greenbelt. Once you pave over agricultural lands, wetlands, conservation areas, etc there is no undoing that destruction. It is a callous and dangerous decision your government is making.

We are not living in the 1940s anymore. Enough of this sprawl development already! Yes we need more housing. But how about fixing the laws to allow more secondary dwelling units on existing lots instead of the measly 50,000 or so that may be built with the current policies? How about allowing municipalities decide on what's best for their cities and towns? How about we build on underutilized parking lots, build more mid rise apartments, more purpose built rentals(fyi federal and provincial governments basically gave up on this years ago, both Liberal and Conservative)for those who will never be in the financial position to buy a house (or have no desire for one)?

This saddens and infuriates me to no end. You are throwing away our agricultural independence and gutting our conservation authorities efforts to protect what little natural area we have left in southern Ontario. This will set us back decades. Using impending immigration as an excuse to justify this move shows your Government's inability to think outside the box. When you have a number of large municipalities who are against paving through the Greenbelt and millions of citizens who cried foul when you tried to do it during your first term(including conservatives) and yet you still insist on doing it, it is very clear this is about satisfying developers who have ties to the Ford family and conservative party at large and less about providing housing. We can provide the necessary housing without doing this.