On December 17th the Peel Regional Council passed a by-law to reduce Caledon’s seats at the table from 5 seats to 3, and to give the acquired 2 seats to City of Brampton.
During the January 19th Special Town Council Meeting Ward 2 Regional Councillor Johanna Downey expressed her concern over what this situation will mean for the future of Caledon.Â
Downey asserted that Caledon had already faced “inequity and undue influence on planning matters” at the Peel table. She was clearly concerned that the reality of holding only 3 seats at a table of 25, would be that Caledon’s control over its own destiny would be pulled even further from its grasp.Â
“All of these decisions impact creating complete communities….impacts the sequencing, community centres, infrastructure, sustainable growth” said Downey.
The Councillor brought forward a Notice of Motion seeking support from the Province for establishing a new Sub-Area Chapter for Peel-Caledon which would “provide local municipalities with equality in control of local planning matters and the distribution of future growth allocations, including the determination of primary settlement areas, strategic employment areas and major transit station areas.”
The Motion also mentions that the Province’s Growth Plan already provides a separate chapter for Simcoe County, Simcoe Sub-Area Chapter 6, which enables the County to allocate population and employment forecasts and for lower-tier municipalities to manage growth.
Downey’s Motion met with immediate resistance from Ward 5 Regional Councillor Annette Groves who said she would not support it as she felt a financial impact study should come first.Â
Ward 3/4 Regional Councillor Jennifer Innis countered that Caledon’s decisions being challenged and not supported at the Region already meant that “we have already spent millions of dollars fighting at the LPAT.”
Chief Planner Sylvia Kirkwood explained that looking at financial impacts would be part of the process if the Province agreed to consider this.Â
Ward 1 Regional Councillor Ian Sinclair felt the Motion was “too vague” and said he wasn’t convinced that this maneuver would “accomplish what we hope to achieve” and that he would prefer to wait and see a more detailed staff report.
Ward 1 Area Councillor Lynn Kiernan echoed Innis’ point stating that “the costs we have been dealing with over the last several years are already egregious” and that the way things are going with the non-collaboration of the Councillors at the Peel Regional table “we are doomed to continue to have these egregious costs.”
Ward 5 Area Councillor Tony Rosa said he felt the Motion was a little vague and would feel better if it was accompanied by a letter with more specifics.
Ward 3/4 Area Councillor Nick deBoer said “We need to start to do something. We are about to have 3 seats around a very large table and (that table) basically has the ability to decide what happens in Caledon. This is a starting point so we can have this discussion with the Province.”
Ward 2 Area Councillor Christina Early said she was sitting in at the Regional table for Mayor Thompson the day the Region basically voted down Mayfield West 2; and it was literally a sliver of a parcel; for us not to be able to proceed with that entire community. I will tell you that it was like being kicked in the stomach that day. It was just so illogical for that to occur.”
Early asked Kirkwood if this was a direction she could support and “that you absolutely think we should take…” Kirkwood responded that this was something that would start a conversation with the Province that could “give us some control over our destiny” and “give some planning control back to Caledon.”
The Motion passed with Councillors Innis, Downey, Kiernan, Early, deBoer, Rosa and Mayor Thompson voting in favour.
Councillors Sinclair and Groves voted against the Motion.
The complete text of Motion 6.1 can be found here
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