<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class="">Good Day,<div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Thank you to all the GREN members who came out to the Provincial Open House on Greenbelt Expansion this past Thursday night. It was great to see such a strong attendance from GREN as well as our entire community. Well done!</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">I heard from Provincial Staff that it was one of most attended Open Houses and that they were particularly surprised by the quality of questions as well as just how engaged in their community attendees seemed to be.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">The Region of Waterloo Staff Report on Greenbelt Expansion was released on Friday afternoon (attached below) and many of our local municipalities will have reports coming to their Councils over the next week or two in advance of the March 7th deadline. The Region is supportive of Greenbelt expansion provided their concerns are addressed. This includes ensuring our stronger local protections aren’t eroded and the best mapping data is used. The Regional Report lists their concerns (that are quite reasonable) that they need the province to address and we will need to work together to ensure we get the proper policy edits for the strongest possible protections. </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">If we are going to succeed as a community and be world-class, we need all levels of government - municipal, regional, and provincial working collaboratively to ensure that we have the best possible protections working in an integrated fashion - ideally, permanent Greenbelt protection reinforcing our progressive local protections with the strongest protections prevailing.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">The front page headline and photo of The Record newspaper today is about this Regional Staff Report on the Greenbelt Expansion Proposal and ensuring that any future Greenbelt expansion meets our needs in Waterloo. I’m very confident that we can work with the province over the next year or two to achieve the best plan and see this visionary proposal to protect so much of our province succeed.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Please be sure to speak up and submit your comments, feedback, and ideas urging our governments to keep moving forward with this Greenbelt expansion proposal before the March 7th deadline. You can write, phone, e-mail, or respond however you like at:</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><a href="http://www.ontario.ca/greenbelt" class="">www.ontario.ca/greenbelt</a> or <a href="http://contact.smartgrowthwaterloo.ca/greenbelt/" class="">http://contact.smartgrowthwaterloo.ca/greenbelt/</a><br class=""><div class=""><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div class="">Thanks again!</div><div class="">Kevin.</div><div class=""><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div class="">------------------------------</div><div class=""><b class="">Region of Waterloo Staff Report on Greenbelt Expansion:</b></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">
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