As a Professional Planner…

As a Professional Planner practicing in Ontario, with more than 40 years of experience,including seven years as Toronto's Chief Planner, I'd like to register my opposition to Bill 212. I fully subscribe to the submission from the Ontario Professional Planners Institute and will not repeat their comments specifically.

In my experience, North American cities are trending toward smarter choices around urban planning which is building back choice in how we live and work -- learning lessons from immediate post war planning which separated land uses, was more primarily designed around the car and had less regard for climate impacts and socially inclusivity. Smarter choices today are about building cities for the 21st century which blend land uses, design mobility around all modes of travel and make sustainable and inclusive choices about design. It plays out sometimes differently in dense urban, suburban and regional contexts and of course, people live, work and move around in all contexts. Bike lanes, as just one example of change in our city, are going to be easier to accommodate where there is more space and choices can be made without compromising safety and the vitality of streets. As Toronto evolves, these choices about where and how to best locate bike lanes in different contexts is best left to local decision making to mediate interests and navigate choices. The ballot box at the local level is the best place to determine whether these interests have been appropriately considered.

Indeed, political choice often intertwines with how we plan cities -- planning is inherently political. Famously, Premier Davis in 1971 chose a direction for the Spadina Expressway -- stating that "the streets belong to the people" after saying "we are building a transportation system to serve people". The current government has already earned high praise for finally advancing a much more sophisticated public transit network for the 21st century. It would be consistent and a great contribution to that legacy if the government continued Premier Davis's now 50 year old belief, especially where space is so finite. Our streets were always about so much more than just cars passing through.

Thank you for considering this submission.