McLean was insulting, but maybe he did us a favour
Ian McLean just insulted everyone who’s concerned about the secret, forced purchase of prime farmland for an industrial workplace in Wilmot Township.
McLean, who is head of the Greater Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber of Commerce, released an open letter with other business leaders last week, saying the controversial land assembly underway in Wilmot, including threats of expropriation, is essential to the region’s future prosperity.
When interviewed by my colleague Terry Pender, McLean mocked what he called the “histrionics” of people who have concerns about it.
Here’s what he said, in Monday’s story:
“The histrionics: ‘Oh my God, New Hamburg is going to grow,’ it is growing whether this gets done or not because we are going to have one million people, ” said McLean.
“The only question is: ‘Are there going to be jobs for the million people who will be living here?’”
He also referred to the land-assembly opposition as a knee-jerk reaction by NIMBYs who don’t get it. (NIMBY stands for “Not In My Back Yard.”)
Wow.
For me, McLean’s comments show a shocking level of contempt toward the many people who don’t agree with him.
Let’s be clear. It is not “histrionics” to feel unhappy or betrayed about a development that seems to run against the longstanding principles of this region to conserve farmland, and that it’s happening in a cone of silence without any public consultation.
It is not “histrionics” to wonder why the farmers on the 770 acres of land, bound by Highway 7/8, Nafziger Road, Bleams Road and Wilmot Centre Road, are bring threatened by their own local government with expropriation. Or to ask why expropriation is being used at all, when that is a tool for a major public project such as a highway or hospital, not a private enterprise.
And it is not “histrionics” to ask very reasonable questions, such as how we’re supposed to manage the wastewater needs of an industrial site on those 770 acres, when the capacity of the current infrastructure in that area is already full. Are we going to pipe the waste water to Kitchener? Because that’s going to be expensive.
Nor is it “histrionics” to ask if it is even a desirable goal for the Region of Waterloo to grow to a million people by 2051.
I find it interesting that McLean’s open letter was also signed by the leaders of Communitech, Explore Waterloo Region, the Cambridge Chamber of Commerce, and the Waterloo Region Economic Development Corporation.
The leaders of those organizations must know something specific about the project to be lobbying so hard for it, with this amount of urgency and secrecy.
Not for one moment do I believe that this is about assembling land for a future project that might theoretically come along someday.
All these leaders know what’s been proposed. You and I don’t, even though we are the people who elected the decision-makers and will be paying the bills.
And that’s another kind of insult. When something is truly a secret, only a handful of people know about it. This development is obviously widely well understood among the business and political elite, while the rest of us are being kept in the dark.
A lot of people are guessing it might be an electric battery manufacturing facility to allow Toyota (with plants in Cambridge and Woodstock) to remain here, building electric cars. But that has not been confirmed.
Yet in a weird way, McLean’s letter was also a gift, because it was a dose of honesty.
By showing exactly how little he thinks of those of us who live here and believe in the longstanding values of Waterloo Region, by making it clear that the elites know what’s going on while the ordinary people are not only left out but also mocked, he has clearly shown us who and what we ordinary people are dealing with. I hope his arrogant words will give the rest of us the gift of outrage: Fuel for our resolve to prevent this development from happening until information is shared and there is broad consensus that it is necessary.