The Oakville Midtown Transit…

The Oakville Midtown Transit-Oriented Community (TOC) fails to comply with Premier Ford’s Build Homes Faster agenda. The Midtown TOC will not deliver a single home before 2031, the Province’s own housing deadline, and will take 25 years to complete. The Town’s Official Plan Amendment for Midtown (OPA 70) was developed transparently, with public input and local Council approval. In contrast, the TOC was advanced behind closed doors under confidentiality agreements, endorsing 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. Ontario's duty is to govern in the public interest.

MZOs should be used as a last resort, only where they are urgent and necessary. That is not the case here, where Oakville's 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 housing with the required community infrastructure.

Most importantly, MZOs in this case override the democratic process that resulted in OPA70, for the sake of private interests and will eliminate the superior, locally endorsed, provincially compliant OPA70. This will surely alienate voters. The Province needs to get the Midtown project back on the right track by endorsing the logical plan, OPA70, which has local support and complies with all provincial housing requirements. I vote NO for these MZOs!