ERO 019-8462 Review of…

ERO 019-8462 Review of proposed policies for a new provincial planning policy instrument, posted April 12, 2024

Previous Proposals:
ERO 019-6177 Review of A Place to Grow and Provincial Policy Statement, posted October 25, 2022
ERO 019-6813 Review of proposed policies adapted from A Place to Grow and Provincial Policy Statement to form a new provincial policy instrument, posted April 6, 2023

The Report of the Ontario Housing Affordability (February 8, 2022) made 74 unique recommendations. The report was presented “not as an all or nothing proposal, but rather as a list of options that the government has at its disposal to help address housing affordability for Ontarians …”

Recommendation 2
Amend the Planning Act, Provincial Policy Statement and Growth Plans to set “growth in the full spectrum of housing supply” and intensification within existing built-up areas” of municipalities as the most important residential housing priorities in the mandate and purpose.
There is no recommendation to dissolve the Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe. A review of the three documents, A Place to Grow, Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe (2019), the Provincial Policy Statement (2020) and the Proposed Provincial Planning Statement (2024) reveals some very disturbing omissions of the wisely protected and managed assets of the Growth Plan. When first proposed in 2022, the government advised that the integration of the PPS and A Place to Grow would:
• Continue to protect the environment, cultural heritage and public health and safety

What is missing:
Chapter 4: Wise Use and Management of Resources
- The natural heritage systems provincial mapping
- Section 4.2.8.2 a) no new mineral aggregate operations and no new wayside pits and quarries, or any ancillary or accessory use thereto, will be permitted in the following natural heritage features and key hydrologic features: significant wetlands, habitat of endangered species and threatened species, and significant woodlands.
- Section 4.2.8.2 b) and c)

In addition, there is no exception for quarries to be prohibited from specialty crop areas.

The aggregate industry has been opposing Section 4.2.8.2 for a number of years. OSSGA has commented that integration of A Place to Grow: Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe and the Provincial Policy Statement will provide OSSGA the opportunity to correct previous changes to the Growth Plan which threaten the availability of close to market aggregate.

I am opposed to the loss of the Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe. This plan was developed over many years and protects a unique area of Ontario.