I strongly object to the…

I strongly object to the Ford Government’s plan to build on currently protected Greenbelt land. The proposal is short sighted and destructive. It will destroy environmentally sensitive land, build on farm land that provides our communities with locally sourced foods and contribute to urban sprawl. We need more density on lands already close to services, not new homes in outlying areas where there is no exiting infrastructure. The whole plan is wrong headed and does not take into account the advice of experts in urban planning and those concerned with the care of our precious and fast disappearing green spaces.

The Greenbelt was deemed protected in 2005, and Doug Ford's conservative government personally campaigned on never ever touching it, because "the people demanded it" and he was for the people. He won his way into power on a Trojan Horse.

The consequence of the proposed amendment to open up the Greenbelt to development is far-reaching, unchangeable, and designed to create the reasoning behind even more development, highway 413, etc.

The Greenbelt protects waterways. It protects woodlands and agricultural lands, which are important to food security, so there’s all sort of aspects of the Greenbelt that are critical to the functioning of this region.

There is no lack of space in Ontario to be building. There is no need to build on Greenbelt land.
Housing advocates made it clear that this is actually going to mean fewer homes in the neighbourhoods where homes are needed.

Once we open the door for a request to remove any nontrivial part of the land from the green belt protection, we really destroyed the whole greenbelt system. The prices of land, agricultural prices become development prices so the farmer can’t afford the land anymore.

I can’t begin to imagine why this is being proposed. It’s important that we don’t allow this foolish and destructive action to go forward.