"We are going to make sure…

"We are going to make sure we keep every single promise", "I was clear during the campaign. I listened to the people and we are not touching the Greenbelt. We will protect it and all its beauty" - Doug Ford June, 2022. I didn't realize promises and people meant to his developer friends.

Urban sprawl is not the solution to the affordable housing crisis. Bill 23 jeopardizes affordable homes, could make renting more expensive and cuts funding to municipalities. I support carefully considered densification, but I strongly oppose the use of environmentally sensitive land to build housing. I completely believe those municipalities such as Erin that are not supportive of the false equivalency of expansion into unnecessary areas. This bill will wreck the environment. Conservation oversight to protect our environment is reduced. It is expensive for municipalities to provide services to new developments, and transportation is less accessible by mass transit.

The only glimmer of positive in this bill is the possibility to increase density in existing neighborhoods, but at the same time renters must not be evicted due to the demolition of existing homes. We need expanded rent control!

Development fees must not be reduced at all but without a doubt not when municipalities are not being provided funds to address their losses needed to build supporting infrastructure. As a taxpayer, I strongly oppose increased taxes because houses are being built that won't even address the affordable housing crisis.

The lack of consultation with First Nations is also a huge issue with me (Anishinabek Nation and others). The Niagara Escarpment is the most biodiverse place in Canada and is designated a United Nations Biosphere Reserve. The organization in charge of the NE Biosphere Reserve (NEBN) that maintains UNESCO's mandate and designation of the Niagara Escarpment Biosphere has said "hands off". Objections also come from many other sources such as the Wilderness Committee Ontario, David Suzuki FDN, leading architectural and landscape architectural firms, Canadian Centre for Housing Rights, Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario, among many, any others.

Finally, the corruption is in "real-time". As just one example, donors to the Ford government borrowing $100 million at a TWENTY-ONE PERCENT interest rate in order to buy up Greenbelt land that, in less than a year, was magically opened to development (Globe and Mail, November 2022). The recent series by the Toronto Star and The Narwhal outlined the developer connected the dots.

I pledge to vote for any candidate in a future election that makes it their priority to reverse Ford's sale of #Greenbelt lands.