Hundreds of hectares in Waterloo Region have been made available for housing

The decision to amend the Regional Official Plan (ROP) was made by Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Steve Clark.

The details were made public Tuesday and cannot be appealed by the Region of Waterloo. This is in an effort to achieve the province’s goal of building 1.5 million homes in Ontario by 2031.

The ROP includes strategy that stretches until 2051, and Regional Chair Karen Redman said that most of the additional land that will be developed for housing is already in the countryside line, and despite the amendments, she is pleased that the minister approved the plan.

“The Regional Official Plan is not a one-and-done,” said Redman. “We always acknowledged that when you’re looking at the kind of rapid growth that we’re experiencing, we would have to re-visit the Regional Official Plan over time.”

However, Vice-Chair of the Grand River Environmental Network Kevin Thomason told the Mike Farwell Show that he believes the province did not have the data to making such a drastic change.

“We have a profoundly undemocratic decision being issued by the minister,” said Thomason. “Overriding a plan that our community and our local councils worked for years on. It is very concerning to see a minister come in with no data, no information, no rationale and completely change that plan and just in a minor way. This is 15 times the land that we ever thought we’d need in the decades ahead.”

Redman said that the region is expecting to see the population grow to one million before 2051, and believes that the minister took that into consideration.

“We know that we’re going to grow, so what we need to do is ensure that it’s well thought out planning, that there’s a variety of housing, that we have townhomes, that we have stacked townhomes, that we have rental accommodation for people who are going to come to the community.”

However, Thomason said that the province was asking for 75,000 homes, and the ROP had a plan for 120,000 homes.

President of the National Farmers Union Jenn Pfenning also called the original ROP balanced. She believed that there was a good compromise between enabling growth and keeping some land within the countryside line for future use.

She wants to remind everyone that farmland doesn’t come from thin air.

“There isn’t any more farmland to make. We can’t create it,” said Pfenning. “I don’t know where my grandchildren are going to farm. I don’t feel any sense of confidence that we are going to be able to have any farmland left in this region in the next 10 years.”

Pfenning added that she is very concerned about the lack of care for food security shown by the province.

For homes to be built, water and wastewater infrastructure will have to be in place. Redman maintained that the region is committed to working with area municipalities to ensure infrastructure is built in a timely manner.

“We have made a commitment, we can make this happen.”