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Losing our Minds

August 24, 2023   ·   0 Comments

By Constance Scrafield

Is it really just about money? Well, it’s not about the right way to do things or not knowing the alternatives. It’s not about not understanding the harm and the risks. It’s not about dismissing the facts. It’s not as though this isn’t happening in full view where we all can watch it happening – or trying to happen.

So, what is the drive behind Doug Ford’s and his developer buddies’ manic push to bury the Green Belt under concrete, under “30,000 houses?”

Everyone knows all about the plan that this is not about building “affordable housing.” The plans are to build “executive housing.” Million-dollar homes for million–dollar people.

Everyone knows about the hundreds of thousands of dollars developers have donated to the Ontario Conservative Party and the kind of money they have paid to buy acres of the Green Belt for development.

It is a real puzzle because there is plenty of land already designated or suitable to be designated for development, especially of “affordable housing” in urban areas, that has not even been included in the Ford Government plans. 

Ontario’s Auditor General, Bonnie Lysyk’s scourging report makes sad reading of the government’s leaders caught in a saga of corruption and despoiling, an attack on venerable and precious land essential to the environmental well-being of the very province they have been trusted to lead.

Even if the money adds up to “a lot,” how can anything be more important than the wetlands, the pocket of the most fertile farmlands in the province, and the at-risk wildlife? This is not about a soft approach to preservation because it is pretty or the little animals are cute. This is about what really matters in the world – that which is natural, which feeds and gives us life.

I think we forget that all the time when we talk about clearing vast swaths of it for unneeded highways and expensive housing development. Even if the proposed housing was actually in favour of reducing the crisis we face, this would still not be sufficient justification for tearing up thousands of acres – or any acres – of the Green Belt.

By the bye, not for a hospital either.

That which is nature- wild, sheltering ecosystems and wildlife feeds us and gives us life.

Once listening to the CBC Radio 1 interview about the Middle East, one of the well-informed gentlemen in the exchange said, “I don’t think there’ll be peace in the Middle East any time soon. War,” said he, “is very profitable.”

Terrifyingly – that about summed us up for me. War is very profitable without regard to its irrationality, its cost to the beings, human or otherwise, shrugged off as “collateral damage,” or the profound waste in the destruction of buildings and infrastructure. 

War is profitable; unreasonable development of sensitive lands is profitable; gouging grocery shoppers is profitable; insane housing costs is profitable. Monopolies are profitable.

There is a lot of talk about the modern wealth disparity – where the balance is greater than ever between the really wealthy (multi-millionaires, billionaires, say) and the really poor. About the truly intense focus on profit, where interest in a reasonable life for everyone is nil. Not just cities but every small town nowadays is witnessing homelessness. People here in Orangeville are seen occasionally on the roadside with cups to catch coins from vehicles waiting at red lights. Food banks here and, indeed, everywhere are jammed with people needing help to feed themselves and, perhaps, a family too.

The race of the take-over of one monster company over another is constantly in the news, and whatever happened to sensible laws against monopolies appears to have taken a beating because monopolies are flourishing and taking control of the cost of living – for their own profitability.

There are all kinds of war, and they are all very profitable. Wars are not simply fought with armaments; they are fought with lies, with unforgiving self-interest, with attacks on lands that cannot fight back, but the failure that comes with environmental depletion will make the attackers pay in ways they have not considered.

Scientists are reminding us all the time that everything on this planet is connected to everything else. The so-called butterfly effect is seeing a critical comeback as, around the world, there is war by arms, by over-developing, by savage harm to the environment, and so much more, but the pay-back is historical fires and floods and the uncountable numbers of people seeking refuge from all of it.

Politicians lie. I don’t know why – well, one does know, of course, but the real question is: why don’t they just do a good, honest job of governing? Sure, they are surrounded, hounded even and threatened, no doubt, to be less good, less honest and buy into the lies their predecessors adopted so the wars can continue and the profits for the few soar.

Doug Ford – your promises are broken, and your lies are exposed. Back down and say “sorry” to your developer friends. They will live to build another day, and you can retire to the safety of your previous life.

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