Protecting - and expanding -…

Protecting - and expanding - the Greenbelt is vitally important. Developing land that has already been dedicated to the Greenbelt opens up a dangerous precedent, and should not be allowed. There are important reasons that the Greenbelt was created, and we should be working to expand the reaches of the Greenbelt.

Losing Farmland - we should be working to maintain vital agricultural lands, particularly in the face of rising food costs. Local food, and supporting local farmers, is a way to keep our region fed. There are a number of jobs and green infrastructure that we would lose by removing these lands.

Losing nature - we maintain that our province is green and beautiful, and we shouldn't be taking that away. We shouldn't have to drive to Thunder Bay to be able to be in nature. Being surrounded by, and having access to, nature is so important to the health and enrichment of our children. Further development will move nature further and further away from our living areas, and will add more pollution (by wrecking and paving over waterways, and adding concrete where there should be forest and other plants regulating our air). We made commitments to become more climate resilient, and this would be the opposite of that, even with the addition of more land to the Greenbelt in this proposal. We should be adding that extra land regardless.

And, losing habitat for our province's rich ecosystem. Plants, insects, birds, fish, animals, and people. We all should be protecting those who also live here - we need our children to have green spaces and to interact with nature, and we need our local flora and fauna to continue to flourish. We've been pushing more and more species (plants and animals alike) further away from our urban centres, and the GTA is no exception. We should recognize our task to be stewards of the land, rather than paving it over. It will only benefit all of us in the long run.

There are other, better, ways to expand housing development and availability, that don't include destroying the greenbelt. Expanding the Greenbelt, without removing any land from it, will enable our province to stick to its previous promises to protect our water sources, protect our natural environment, and to become more climate resilient. We should not be allowing developers to continue to profit off of our green spaces, to the detriment of our environment. Look at other cities that have allowed urban sprawl to continue unabated - those cities have more air pollution, a lack of clean water, and their resources are spread too thin (too much ground to cover for transit and other services, for example). They're also more vulnerable to flood and other storm damage, costing even more in repairs.

Look to regulate current housing (how many condos and houses currently stand empty, how many short term rentals are running), look to offer subsidies for those able to add apartments onto existing residences, encourage construction of multi-family homes in existing neighbourhoods. These are all options, and should be explored first, rather than destroying more environment for the sake of handouts for developers that donate to campaigns (both liberal and conservative).

Not to mention - a promise was made to voters to protect this land. I'd hate to think we elected liars, and I'd hate even more to wonder what else the government is lying about. This isn't the way to build trust.