The Ontario election took a bizarre turn this week with the revelation that PC leader Doug Ford intends to decommission parts of the Greenbelt to build housing developments.
The Greenbelt was established in 2005 to curtail urban sprawl and protect farmland and environmentally sensitive areas.
WATCH BELOW: Doug Ford promises to open portion of Greenbelt to development if elected Premier
Ford’s plan to give that land to developers is wrong-headed and destructive.
Does Doug Ford know where our food comes from?
The countryside, where farmers grow crops to feed us, needs protection, not more housing developments and strip malls.
The trees that purify the air that we breathe and the wetlands that filter the toxins we poison the environment with need to be maintained, not destroyed.
Ford clearly has no idea of the added costs that come with urban sprawl; the cost to build and maintain roads, the cost of water and sewer systems and the cost of extending things like police and ambulance services and public transit would only add to our already high property taxes.
The current government has a lot to answer for, but protecting farmland and our environment with the Greenbelt is one of the things it got right.
Doug Ford apparently doesn’t understand the point of the Greenbelt, or he doesn’t care.
Either way, it’s simply not acceptable for someone who wants to be premier of Ontario.
Bill Kelly is the host of Bill Kelly Show on AM 900 CHML and a commentator for Global News.