AREA: Mount Hope, ON …

AREA: Mount Hope, ON (Amalgamated City of Hamilton)

I’m writing to you to share my firm opposition to recent provincial actions with broad destructive impacts on our city and our province.

Bill 23 (the “More Homes Built Faster Act”) and the proposed Greenbelt removals are unprecedented attacks on environmental protections, local decision-making, and municipalities' abilities to meet their climate change targets. The province has overstepped its authority and must rescind these actions.

I am a resident of White Church Road East in Mount Hope where it is proposed to remove the greenbelt protection and to build more homes. On White Church Road we have modest family homes, farms, and fields - we have no municipal transportation, no sewers, no municipal water, and most neighbours have no natural gas or high speed internet. This is not an area resourced for development or offering any densification of housing. Nor do we need any more "McMansions on farm land" as has been the case in a few recent builds - building multi-million dollar homes will not solve any housing crisis.

I am also opposed to opening up protected Greenbelt lands for development. Protecting these lands is critical for our watersheds, water quality, agricultural systems, and climate resilience. Allowing developers to pick off chunks of the Greenbelt in “land swaps” threatens these natural systems and creates more sprawl. Imposing sprawl on municipalities like Hamilton which have decided to add density within their boundaries instead of growing outwards into green spaces follows the same destructive path.

On behalf of your constituents, please stand up and voice your opposition to these destructive bills and actions. Do no remove the greenbelt designation on white church road in Mount Hope.