Letter to the Editor – Globe and Mail Re: Ontario needs density, its getting sprawl

The Globe continues to treat Ontario's housing task force report as if it should constitute the guiding light for the province's approach to planning and development. The reality is that the report offered no serious analysis of the nature and drivers of the province's housing 'crisis,' and its recommendations amounted to little more than a development industry wish list. Increasing the density of urban areas in a manner that produces functional, liveable, affordable and sustainable communities requires careful planning - the very opposite of what the task force recommended. Bludgeoning communities into acquiescing to the development industry's wishes, as the Ford government's Bills 23 and 37 would effectively do, is a formula for chaos, political conflict, further losses of existing affordable housing, and the destruction what social consensus may exist around urban intensification. Such outcomes will ultimately undermine the efforts to provide truly affordable housing and contain the Toronto region's sprawl onto prime agricultural lands and other areas crucial to the region's ecological health.

Yours sincerely,