Regional Council takes a pass on a Staff draft proposal for preferred growth plan instead - decides not to change urban boundaries - protects farmland

By Pepper Parr

February 16^th, 2022

BURLINGTON, ON

The headline tells part of the story – so here it is.

Halton Regional Council rejected a draft preferred Growth Plan for the Region and voted 15-9 to go with a motion brought forward by Mayor Burton of Oakville and Meed Ward of Burlington to put forward a modified Growth Plan that will see nothing in the way of urban boundary changes until 2041 and a review every five years to closely monitor where the growth actually took place.

In a sentence: no farmland will be used for residential or employment lands.

It was a long, long meeting that heard 58 delegations, including one from former Toronto Mayor David Crombie.

The number of delegations is believed to be a record for the Region.

There was merit on both sides of what was a very passionate argument.

Give us a day to go through our notes and look for the really important points that were made and the recognition that the issue was not so much farmland use – but climate change.

It was a great day for the Region – but there are a lot of feathers that were ruffled – some fence mending will be needed and the interests of Milton and Halton Hills will have to be given special attention.