The changes proposed in Bill…

The changes proposed in Bill 23 would be disastrous to the environment in Ontario. Wetlands are incredibly important for many things including species at risk, flood mitigation, water filtration, and act as carbon sinks keeping carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. Climate change is currently one of the greatest threats we face, and destroying critical wetlands to build subdivisions would be extremely detrimental to our efforts to fight climate change.

As one of the people outlined in the bill who can't afford to own a house, I agree we absolutely need to build more affordable housing. However, destroying more of our natural spaces is not the way to do it. If the premier wants to make housing more affordable there are many other ways to do it: increase the minimum wage, provide funding for housing-first homelessness programs, relax zoning bylaws to allow for denser, mixed use development in our cities instead of subdivision style single family dwellings, regulate landlords to manage prices, and create a government owned housing system as a way of keeping housing affordable.

I hope the government will reconsider what it has proposed in Bill 23 and put a stop to it immediately.