The Greenbelt must not be…

The Greenbelt must not be chopped up even if the justification is for more housing. Premier Ford and Minister Clark repeatedly have stated that it would not be opened up for construction. These promises were made as recently as the latest election, a time when the current state of the housing issues would have already been known. Yet they made these "promises" as they knew that the carving up of the greenbelt for development would only be truly accepted by those who will gain to financially benefit from it.
As a young adult looking towards my future, I truly understand the struggle of wanting to be a homeowner. But carving up the Greenbelt to build more multimillion dollar homes will not help me achieve that dream. We need more beginner properties, be that smaller homes or more affordable apartments. This can definitely be furthered by actually working with the municipal governments. Cities such as Hamilton put forward plans and proposals that would ensure adequate housing to meet the growing population needs without having to sprawl. So why are they being ORDERED to sprawl into the greenbelt if it is not necessary. The government should at the bare minimum be keeping their promise, and working to fill the housing with these workable plans and only then if there is still not enough supply, consider looking at other options.
The Greenbelt is important for helping mitigate the effects of climate change and providing food security for the people of Ontario. Damaging effects in both of those are not things that the current government nor the benefiting developers will truly experience but my generation and my future children along with generations to come after them will. If Mr. Ford truly cares about the people of Ontario he will care about ALL the people of Ontario and look to the future in considering how he proceeds with the province we live in. Once the Greenbelt is opened up for development, what is to stop more and more of it from being opened up under the same pretences. What happens when the farmland is gone and we are no longer food secure? What happens when the marshlands are paved over and can no longer contribute to flood prevention? What happens when we no longer have greenspace to help with both mental well being and reduction of heat bubbles? We can't go back and undo the development once it has been done and saying we need to build in the greenbelt just because that is where the infastructure already is is ludacrious. The current infastructure is there because historically the area was the best farmland available and near waterways with no true means of being able to build elsewhere. We have already paved over great quantities of this farmland and do not have more that can be gained. It is great the province is proposing adding more, already protected, land to the greenbelt but if it can so easily just be removed then what is the point? Do we just keep "adding" to it while taking away until the greenbelt is just the encircling Canadian shield?
If Mr. Ford says we need the housing, and he says we need to build it where the infrastructure already exists and we absolutely cannot build any more in the current urban limits then he should consider looking at that very Canadian shield. The rocky landscape does not have as much to lose if it is paved over for development. Expand the city of Sudbury, or Thunder Bay. Or if the government would truly like to set a global example of what Ontario can achieve, and great a multitude of more job opportunities, build a brand new city in the north. A planned, from scratch urban centre of the future. But we must leave the Greenbelt alone!