Continuing to propagate…

Continuing to propagate urban sprawl is not only bad for the environment and the Greenbelt, it is bad policy.

Continued urban sprawl will require more expensive infrastructure, roads, bridges, hydro corridors, sewage and water. All of these services are in place in exiting urban areas but would have to be built in new areas. This leads to increased costs for municipalities to build, and with the plan to remove development charges, this would directly cost the existing population.

Urban sprawl is very expense to build and maintain. Besides the above mentioned services that must be built, the maintenance of roads, garbage collection, transit, policing, medical services, fire services, etc is an ongoing drain on government coffers. This will eventually lead to the need to increase taxes to continue at a minimal level of service. And lastly, these areas will not be built for higher density housing, it will be built for more McMansions housing but a few people vs what is needed.

The Premier promised to not touch the Greenbelt, but now he feels that he can, and looking at the areas to be developed, the only people who would benefit are those who donate to, and are friends of, the Premier. This is the type of hypocrisy the PC's promised to root out, especially when the Premier promised to stop the "gravy train", but here it is going on, and the path leads directly to the PC leader, Doug Ford.

An alternative is to build up in existing areas. There are homes that can be changed from one house to multiple homes, low rises, medium density housing, all within the existing service area of municipalities. This would not require more roads or sewers to be built and would allow areas to increase their transit on existing routes.