The council approved more than 1,350 to 1,650hectares of land for homebuilding to be added on the outskirts of Ottawa’s suburbs after it received a 15 to 6 vote on Wednesday. Along with the approved homebuilding land, the council also approved an endorsed growth plan for 402,000 resident accommodation. The council plans to set a residential intensification goal of 51 percent starting July 2018 to July 2046.

These plans will create new boundaries and will be composed of 1,281 hectares of residential land while the rest will be allotted for employment land, although the extension is already planned, Coun. Jan Harder said that they would provide a variety of housing. He said that planning isn’t about taking the people’s choice in what kind of house they wanted to live in. On the other hand, Coun. Rawlson King said that the city needs to focus more on the intensification since they need to know the cost of the expansion on the taxpayers.

Usually, expansions that will consume suburbs will raise the eyebrows of environmentalists. However, the impending protests are thwarted by the pandemic. The masses turned to social media protests and internet movements to demand the halt of the planned expansion.