The Whitevale and District…

The Whitevale and District Residents’ Association members are deeply concerned about Schedule 10 of Bill 66, “Restoring Ontario’s Competitiveness Act, 2018”. While Schedule 10 has far reaching implications beyond the Hamlet of Whitevale and the City of Pickering, we are particularly concerned with creating more sprawl under the guise of “open-for-business legislation”, and fear that lands within the Greenbelt could be affected. We recognize that a proposal of a mere strip mall would satisfy the threshold of 50 new jobs required for the open-for –business by law in a municipality the size of Pickering.

Pickering is now in the first stage of implementing Seaton a community that will see the addition of 37,000 new Pickering residents accommodated in Phase I alone. This number will rise to 70,000 by the time it has been built out - almost doubling Pickering's population.
The Plan for Seaton includes:
• Employment land located along Hwy 407 currently for sale by Infrastructure Ontario (IO).
• This land has been for sale for some time, however there have been few sales.
• Opening up new opportunities for employment outside of this area would directly compete with the sales goals of the Ontario Government.

The addition of Seaton to Pickering's already overburdened infrastructure has been allowed to proceed without planning to accommodate the dramatic increase in population. If Bill 66 proceeds the municipality can move to develop massive tracks of land outside the Seaton area; potentially creating chaos without having to adhere to proper planning principles for traffic, transit and other essential infrastructure required for a successful community.

We are adamant in our opposition to the Bill as we recognize that when it comes to the environment, long term planning is dramatically more important than short term financial gain.

We respectfully suggest that a more thoughtful review of this legislation is essential.