Thank you for the…

Thank you for the opportunity to comment. I’ll be brief. The Greenbelt provides:
1. Flooding & water management
2. Air cleaning

Those benefits do not transfer. They are local. So developing areas and assuming it’s okay because new ones were added does not consider the greater problem of flooding and air pollution, not to mention the loss of natural spaces for people and animals to enjoy.

In a world where Climate Change is a real threat it is important to have natural flooding mitigation, which the Greenbelt provides to the areas it is local to. This is a real concern insurance companies have, as well as home-owners.

Building massive infrastructure in a hurry has never resulted in positive long term gains. These inevitable problems may result in a class-action suit against the Government of Ontario.

Finally, and this is very important, adding more housing inventory will not lower housing prices. Real estate is a free market and developers work to make a profit. They will price these homes to market values. Most young people cannot afford the current values and cannot manage the current higher interest rates. If you somehow force the prices lower it will simply attract people looking for property investment, which will drive the prices back up.

If you want young people to be able to afford homes here is what you do:
1. Penalize blind bidding
2. Provide first-time buyers a government backed and interest guaranteed mortgage up to a certain value
3. Provide RRSP matching programs for young people going to work in certain sectors, which they can then use as part of their downpayment. This added benefit gives incentives for people to take on needed roles, such as nurses, PSWs, EAs, etc.

Thanks for listening.