The community of Waterloo…

The community of Waterloo has benefited tremendously from the years of solid planning that have gone into the Region. In particular, the fact that the Region has accommodated growth, while at the same time holding the line on urban expansion, serves as a valuable lesson not only for other municipalities in Ontario, but also for the Province itself. Short sighted changes to long established planning procedures does not bode well for the future of Ontario. Our societies are tremendously complex, and although many procedures appear to be red tape, there are often good reasons for rules to have been established in the past.

There has been a tremendous amount of work put into the Regional OP and it should be approved by the Province. Bureaucrats don't often receive accolades from the general public - but in this case hats off to the hard work that Waterloo has done to move planning forward in the Region.

Waterloo Region and in fact all of the Regional Planning Departments in the GTA area are well positioned to provide a higher level regional context to how to plan and shape our communities. Removing planning at the Regional level would be a mistake. Certainly reducing any duplication of activities, which has certainly been done in the past, is always welcome. However Regional staff are likely to be much less influenced by pressures from land holders/developers looking to push or bend the rules.