Why are Oakville residents,…

Why are Oakville residents, our municipal elected representatives and even Minister Crawford's voices, autonomy and comprehensive research regarding the MZO's and TOC being ignored?

I am writing as an Oakville resident deeply concerned about the government’s recent decision to consider imposing four Minister’s Zoning Orders (MZOs) to force the revised Midtown Oakville Transit-Oriented Community (TOC) onto our town. This approach has exacerbated our frustration and disbelief and contributes to broken trust in government and Premier's agenda's and leadership. This is not about partisan politics.

These MZOs represent a profound override of local democracy despite Oakville’s full compliance with provincial policies and proven track record of growth and housing development. The Town’s Official Plan Amendment for Midtown (OPA 70) was developed transparently, with public input and Council approval. In contrast, the TOC was advanced behind closed doors under confidentiality agreements, striving a predetermined developer driven plan with superficial consultation. This misuse of provincial power resembles the governance failures exposed in the Greenbelt scandal, where planning regulations were overridden to benefit private interests. The Province should not repeat that mistake by going forward with a bad product produced by a seriously flawed process.

This Transit-Oriented Community (TOC) fails to comply with Premier Ford’s Build Homes Faster agenda and will not deliver a single home before 2031, the Province’s own housing deadline, and will take 25 years to complete. OPA70 is a better alternative and is ready to go. Oakville already meets and exceeds all provincial housing requirements through OPA 70. And Oakville has a proven track record for building houses. There is no necessity or urgency for imposing these MZOs now. In fact, imposing these MZO‘s will eliminate the superior alternative, for the financial benefits of the developer.

MZOs are meant to be exceptional tools, not a self serving substitute for proper planning, yet the only rationale offered here is “zoning certainty,” which in reality serves a single purpose: to lock in speculative land value, shift risk from the developer to the public, and freeze an outdated proposal while stripping the Town of its ability to adapt to real housing needs, infrastructure capacity, and changing conditions over time.

I vote NO for these MZOs.

Please read the recent news article quoting our own MPP Stephen Crawford.
“I think the current proposal is excessive and out of step with the Oakville community,” Crawford said. “It’s too much density in a small area.”
https://www.oakvillenews.org/local-news/can-oakville-pull-off-another-g…