Hello, I would like to state…

Hello,

I would like to state that I am completely opposed to the proposed amendments of the Greenbelt Plan. I believe that at this point in our climate crisis we need to do more to protect environmentally sensitive areas, not less. It's extremely short-sighted to pave over farmlands and ecologically sensitive areas, and sprawling 1.5 million new homes across the Golden Horseshoe will not fix our current affordable housing crisis.

According to the 2017 Greenbelt Plan, "These natural areas clean the air, provide drinking water, provide diverse flora and fauna habitats, including pollinators, and they provide opportunities for recreational activities that benefit public health and overall quality of life." Pushing them further north, away from current population centres, reduces these benefits. Razing farmland will make our province more dependent on exterior food supply chains. Developing on wetlands will leave our cities and towns more open to serious flood events. Simply assigning new areas does not address how important the connectivity of the current lands is, and it ignores why these specific areas were included in the first place.

I feel that claims this is necessary to meet critical housing needs are completely disingenuous. First, we have a shortage of affordable housing, and I haven't seen any assurances on how opening up the Greenbelt is going to address this. Second, the government's own task force on housing affordability, dated this year, states, "But a shortage of land isn’t the cause of the problem. Land is available, both inside the existing built-up areas and on undeveloped land outside greenbelts....Most of the solution must come from densification. Greenbelts and other environmentally sensitive areas must be protected, and farms provide food and food security. Relying too heavily on undeveloped land would whittle away too much of the already small share of land devoted to agriculture."

Given all of this, the new amendments seem designed to benefit the few rather than meet the needs of the many, now and in the future. Let's keep our green lands green, and restrict development to areas that make sense.

Thank you.