Local economic support team issues second open letter about land assembly in Wilmot Township

A second open letter has been released by the Business and Economic Support Team of Waterloo Region (BESTWR).

This time, BESTWR suggests that Waterloo Region is at a crossroads and is calling on a “common set of facts” in the community dialogue on land assembly.

The letter outlines the anticipated growth for the community that will see Waterloo Region’s population rise to one million residents in roughly 20 years.

“There is an urgency for preparing and building for our social and economic future,” the letter reads. “This includes building thousands of homes, building a new hospital, completing the light rail transit (LRT) project, welcoming the workforce of the future, creating the jobs to sustain our economy — and doing it all with a clear eye to public safety, healthy neighbourhoods and protecting our environment.”

The letter goes on to say that the region’s growth will need the support of both senior levels of government. It outlines how regional officials will need to continue to “chart our own course.”

“An important discussion is underway on assembling land in Wilmot Township so the region has the option to consider multi-billion dollar investment opportunities that we have been missing out on for over a decade. Everyone should be welcomed to the debate and to express their views.”

The letter outlines six points about why this land assembly is needed to attract economic development for the region.

1. Over 10 years ago, the Schneider’s plant left our community because were not coordinated in trying to save it. Nor did we have a suitable large site ready to accommodate the needs of Maple Leaf Foods which ultimately invested in Hamilton.
2. We lost potential investments by Dr Oetker and Ferrero Rocher for the very same reason.
3. For over a decade, the business community has been sounding the alarm that we did not have any large sites for billion-dollar investments in the region.
4. For the last 3 years, the Waterloo Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) has made this an issue of urgent concern at their open, public information sessions, and have raised this in Council Chambers as well. No secret, no surprise. All provincial MPPs, federal MPs and municipal politicians are invited to their annual Public Information Meeting. It’s advertised in the Waterloo Region Record every October, and the urgency around assembling a so-called “mega-site” and a decent inventory of additional shovel-ready sites is clearly stated in Waterloo EDC’s publicly published strategic plan on page 16.
5. In the Regional Official Plan (Section 2.H.1.22.) the Region is clearly mandated to assemble land for purposes of investment and jobs. This plan was debated and adopted by our elected Regional Councillors.
6. Part of the inspiration to start assembling investment-ready sites was the Province of Ontario’s Job Site Challenge, issued in 2019, which calls on us to consider how to build Waterloo Region into the economic powerhouse we’re capable of becoming. All forwardlooking communities in Ontario are embracing this challenge. Just days ago Honda announced a major new investment in Alliston, Ontario – a direct result of that community’s decision to assemble job sites.

The letter states that doing big things in spite of the comfort of the status quo is built into the community’s DNA.

“Think back to the creation of the University of Waterloo in the 1950s; welcoming Toyota to Cambridge in 1987; or the decision to build the LRT only a decade ago. All of these decisions were controversial,” the letter reads. “These are some of the facts that have been missing from the dialogue until now. It’s time all sides of the discussion hold themselves accountable to these facts going forward.”

This second letter was issued after the region came up against intense scrutiny of how the initial land assembly process began.

A public meeting was held April 4, where Wilmot Township landowners and the community shared their opinions about the land assembly.

One day after that public meeting, the first open letter was issued by the economic support team outlining support for the land assembly on April 5.

On April 11, Premier Ford was in Kitchener and said that he supports the land assembly efforts but there needs to be “willing participants” in the process.

Ontario NDP leader Marit Stiles held a town hall April 19 calling on full transparency on the region’s attempt to assemble land in Wilmot Township.

A spokesperson for Minister Fedeli’s office confirmed that the region has a list of names of companies who want the land. They added they have not seen the list and do not know what companies are on it.