I wholeheartedly disagree…

I wholeheartedly disagree with this amendment.

The purpose of the Greenbelt is to protect important habitat and viable agricultural land which is threatened by sprawl development. The Greenbelt provides innumerable benefits to the province and its residents.

We need our forest canopy/natural areas to help sequester carbon and allow for natural on-site stormwater infiltration. Not to mention air and water quality processes at work. Climate change is the real crisis here and allowing development in the Greenbelt would most certainly magnify the effects of climate change.

Ontario food supply chain is also important and allowing redevelopment in the agricultural lands would hurt access to local food. Even if it's not being used currently for human consumption it could be down the road , taking away that designation for housing would eliminate that possibility. Supply chains have been noticeable interrupted, taking away viable crop producing land seems unwise.

Lastly, this would set a dangerous precedent. Allowing the Greenbelt reduced even in small amounts makes it easier to further reduce in the future.

There were only just proposals in March to expand the Greenbelt and now we are looking to erase that effort.

In closing. In reference to the above noted points, strongly recommend not amending the Greenbelt Plan to allow for these removals.