A Ford win threatens communities
Doug Ford has been a media magnet throughout his four years as Ontario’s premier. He eviscerated environmental safeguards. He’s resurrecting Highway 413, ignoring warnings of irreversible agricultural and environmental harm. After shamelessly buying votes with our tax dollars, he is recycling unfulfilled 2018 promises — like large numbers of long-term-care beds that didn’t materialize. And who can forget his mishandling of COVID-19, putting politics ahead of informed scientists.
But much too little emphasis has been devoted to the biggest looming issue of all, affecting every one of us, in the communities we call home.
Partnerships build communities — province, municipality, developers and citizens. Ford loathes municipalities — even overrode local construction hours bylaws, letting developers build from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., ignoring the trauma to neighbours. His is only a province-developers deal. But developers apply for approvals to municipalities, which must have an official plan (OP) and zoning, and the community must be involved in creating both. Then councils adopt them.
Think of an OP as a house — the end product. Zoning is the blueprint for how it fits into a community. If an application complies, approval follows. Developers can apply to change the OP, which must be very carefully analyzed. Whether an OP amendment involves hundreds of condos in a huge area, or one small land use change, one size fits all in Ford’s Ontario. His government has decreed that a municipality can now have only 120 days to respond, after which the developer can appeal to the Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT).
But Ontario planning requires consulting the public and affected organizations: school boards, local agencies, affected departments like roads, traffic and parking, conservation authorities and others. Getting all these responses takes considerable time municipalities can’t control. But new legislation penalizes them, making them rebate fees to developers. Guess who’ll pay that tab!
What’s all this for? Housing. Not “affordable” housing, just housing. More granite-countered condos with pools and exercise rooms, etc. Where are families to live? Most Burlington highrise condos are mainly one and two-bedrooms, very few threes, and new highrise applications vastly outnumber needed townhouses.
Ford’s successor to the board — the OLT — is running months, if not years, behind schedule. But Ford has a solution. He has budgeted $19 million over three years to appoint more hearing officers. Meantime, municipalities’ budgets include millions for legal and consultant fees to defend these appeals. And developers who had projects refused by councils are quick to appeal.
Halton Region approved Burlington’s new OP 18 months ago). Several developers appealed, wanting increased development. So our OP sits, awaiting hearings by Ford’s appointed bureaucrats who can (and do) override decisions of elected councils Ontario-wide.
Usually a lone appointee rules. Meanwhile, they’re hearing developers’ project appeals. And, no surprise, the province is threatening to overturn Hamilton’s plan to not expand its urban boundary into its agricultural area.
Ontario is the only province with a second-chance board. This should be the ballot question.
MZOs (minister’s zoning orders)? These ministerial decrees, available for years, were rarely used. Ford’s Ontario has handed them out like lollipops. MZOs were intended to enable speedy approval if a significant time-sensitive opportunity should arise. The drawback? They eliminate all public input, which is why previous governments shunned them. But that hasn’t bothered Ford’s “For the People” team.
These are the reasons this planning regime shouldn’t have a second majority. Why not vote for the riding candidate with the best chance of preventing it, and help maintain our community character? Ford, in a minority, would have to show consideration “For the People.”