I oppose the proposed…

I oppose the proposed amendment to the Greenbelt Act which would permit chunks of the Greenbelt to be opened for development. I also oppose offsetting Greenbelt losses with bits of the Paris Galt Moraine. the Paris Galt Moraine should be protected in its entirety. It is the water source for millions of people in southern Ontario.

The Greenbelt is an extraordinary legacy for the province of Ontario. Forward-looking, it provides essential environmental protections, significant knowledge resources and contributes to both the economy and the quality of life for communities. The Golden Horseshoe Greenbelt was created in 2005 to prevent further loss of farmland and natural heritage and to restrict urban sprawl - I repeat, to restrict urban sprawl.

The Greenbelt boundaries were designed explicitly because of the risk of sprawl, because of the risk of future encroachment on farm and green and wet and natural habitat lands. Affordable housing is needed too. As are well planned communities. But vision and imagination and expertise must be the keys to the future. And all the years invested in determining municipal boundaries must be honoured with intelligent design of communities, not cookie cutter repetitions of suburban sprawl which has taken over much of the most productive agricultural land in Southern Ontario, and Canada.

The Greenbelt must be protected. In these times of climate change and population growth we have to recognize and protect its unduplicatable natural capital, and its contribution to our survival, productive agricultural land. The possibilities of the Greenbelt for our economy and health are real, and they are dependent on serious protection to be realized.

I live on a farm in the Greenbelt, and am very sensitive to the potential for more demands to erode its boundaries to respond to speculators who are being given every reason to believe that Greenbelt restrictions will no longer apply. I fear that this first bite will feed the appetite to whittle away at this irreplaceable "life belt".