I rise today to honour the thousands of people who rallied at Queen’s Park on Saturday and in communities across the province to tell the Premier to keep his greenbelt promise to keep his hands off the greenbelt. We simply cannot afford to pave over the farmland that feeds us and the wetlands and green space that clean our drinking water and protect us from flooding. People are demanding that the government put the public good ahead of a handful of wealthy, well-connected land speculators.

The greenbelt provides $9.6 billion of economic benefit to our economy each and every year, and its natural infrastructure provides $3.2 billion worth of benefits to the province, especially flood protection. It’s reckless and fiscally irresponsible for the government to put all of that at risk when the government’s own Housing Affordability Task Force explicitly said we do not need to open the greenbelt to address the housing crisis.

On behalf of Ontarians across the province, I want to remind the government that they work for all the people, not a handful of land speculators, and that paving over the greenbelt and unleashing sprawl on rural Ontario is not the future the people of this province want or can afford.

This government is addressing the housing crisis facing Ontarians. That’s why we’ve brought forward this plan that’s going to expand the greenbelt and develop areas that are beside fully serviced areas beside the 401, 404 and 418, which makes sense, Speaker.

I would also add that Ontario is among Canada’s leaders in protected areas last year, doing things like the Boreal Wildlands, making additions to the Hastings wildlife, making additions in Brighton, the South Shore Joint Initiative for migratory—

Interjection.

This petition is “Protect the Greenbelt and Repeal Bill 23.

“Whereas Bill 23 will remove protected land from the greenbelt, allowing wealthy developers to profit by bulldozing over 7,000 acres of farmland;

“Whereas green spaces and farmland are what we rely on to grow our food, support natural habitats, prevent flooding and mitigate future climate disasters;

“Whereas Ontario loses 319.6 acres of farmland daily to development; and

“Whereas the government’s Housing Affordability Task Force found there is plenty of places to build homes without paving over the greenbelt, showcasing that Bill 23 was never about housing;

“Whereas the power of conservation authorities will be taken away, weakening environmental protections from protecting future development;

“We, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to immediately repeal Bill 23, stop all plans to further remove protected land from the greenbelt and protect existing farmland in the province by passing the Protecting Agricultural Land Act.”