• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
The climate news that makes a difference.
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
  FEATURED
BP Predicts Faster Oil and Gas Decline as Clean Energy Spending Hits $1.1T in 2022 January 31, 2023
Canada Needs Oil and Gas Emissions Cap to Hit 2030 Goal: NZAB January 31, 2023
Ecuador’s Amazon Drilling Plan Shows Need for Fossil Non-Proliferation Treaty January 31, 2023
Rainforest Carbon Credits from World’s Biggest Provider are ‘Largely Worthless’, Investigation Finds January 31, 2023
Danske Bank Quits New Fossil Fuel Financing January 23, 2023
Next
Prev

Ontario Election Candidates Seize on Hamilton’s Urban Boundary Freeze

May 4, 2022
Reading time: 3 minutes

Danielle Scott/wikimedia commons

Danielle Scott/wikimedia commons

17
SHARES
 

The City of Hamilton’s decision to freeze its urban boundary has become an issue in Ontario’s provincial election, with the incumbent Progressive Conservatives denouncing it as municipal overreach and the opposing New Democrats defending it as local democracy in action.

In November, Hamilton city councillors voted 13-3 to reject an expanded urban boundary, preventing sprawl into surrounding farmland. But that was far from the end of the story, writes the Hamilton Spectator.

  • Concise headlines. Original content. Timely news and views from a select group of opinion leaders. Special extras.
  • Everything you need, nothing you don’t.
  • The Weekender: The climate news you need.
New!
Subscribe

The council’s emphatic endorsement of a boundary freeze occurred despite an op-ed that Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Steve Clark penned for the Hamilton Spectator a few days before the vote. Clark rebuffed the idea as “unrealistic” and “irresponsible,” and warned that it would produce a “shortfall of nearly 60,000 homes.”

Then in early April, area MPP Donna Skelly (PC, Flamborough-Glanbrook) called the decision an example of “an anti-housing and anti-growth ideology” during her promotion of Bill 109, the More Homes for Everyone Act.

Consisting of a “suite of measures meant to increase Ontario’s housing supply by slashing through municipal red tape,” writes the Spectator, Bill 109 contains a provision that allows Queen’s Park to send official city plans like Hamilton’s to the Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT), designated in the Bill as “an impartial adjudicator, for review.

Writing before Bill 109 became law, Clark said he might do exactly that with Hamilton’s city plan.

Noting that Clark already has the authority to reject official plans, Hamilton Mayor Fred Eisenberger said the Ford government wanted to use the OLT as a proxy while appearing to “keep their hands clean.”

Bill 109 will also force municipalities to refund processing fees if promised timelines aren’t met, a provision which municipal planning staff fear will cause “a rush to judge files, potentially giving short shrift to environmental studies, cutting out public consultation, and sparking more lengthy and expensive OLT disputes.”

Hamilton chief planner Steve Robichaud told the Spectator the city would need to double or triple its current staff of 30 members to avoid the late penalties contained in Bill 109, particularly since 2019, when the Ford government “shortened timelines for municipalities to process applications: to 120 days from 210 for official plan amendments, and to 90 days from 150 for zoning changes.”

Out on the campaign trail, opposition candidates and leaders stand squarely with Hamilton’s decision to freeze its boundary, with Andrea Horwath’s New Democrats pledging to “encourage responsible development within existing urban boundaries, while protecting farmland and natural heritage from wasteful sprawl.”

The Spectator writes that Liberal leader Steven Del Duca “blasted the Tories” for what he said was “a four-year track record of consistently meddling in municipal responsibilities.”

Back in Hamilton, local environmental activist Don McLean derided the decision to funnel city applications through the OLT as the very definition of a red tape generator. 

“It’s an absurd situation to have cities the size of Hamilton unable to make a decision that is not overridden by the provincial government.”



in Batteries / Storage, Canada, Ending Emissions, Legal & Regulatory, Ontario, Sub-National Governments

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

Mike Mozart/Flickr
Ending Emissions

BP Predicts Faster Oil and Gas Decline as Clean Energy Spending Hits $1.1T in 2022

January 31, 2023
322
Gina Dittmer/PublicDomainPictures
Canada

Canada Needs Oil and Gas Emissions Cap to Hit 2030 Goal: NZAB

January 31, 2023
196
CONFENIAE
Ending Emissions

Ecuador’s Amazon Drilling Plan Shows Need for Fossil Non-Proliferation Treaty

January 31, 2023
61

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

Ken Teegardin www.SeniorLiving.Org/flickr

Virtual Power Plants Hit an ‘Inflection Point’

January 31, 2023
125
Mike Mozart/Flickr

BP Predicts Faster Oil and Gas Decline as Clean Energy Spending Hits $1.1T in 2022

January 31, 2023
322
RL0919/wikimedia commons

Danske Bank Quits New Fossil Fuel Financing

January 23, 2023
2.4k
Doc Searls/Twitter

Guilbeault Could Intervene on Ontario Greenbelt Development

January 31, 2023
132
/snappy goat

Rainforest Carbon Credits from World’s Biggest Provider are ‘Largely Worthless’, Investigation Finds

January 31, 2023
94
Gina Dittmer/PublicDomainPictures

Canada Needs Oil and Gas Emissions Cap to Hit 2030 Goal: NZAB

January 31, 2023
196

Recent Posts

CONFENIAE

Ecuador’s Amazon Drilling Plan Shows Need for Fossil Non-Proliferation Treaty

January 31, 2023
61
Victorgrigas/wikimedia commons

World Bank Climate Reforms Too ‘Timid and Slow,’ Critics Warn

January 31, 2023
42
United Nations

Salvage of $20B ‘Floating Time Bomb’ Delayed by Rising Cost of Oil Tankers

January 27, 2023
121
@tongbingxue/Twitter

Extreme Warming Ahead Even as Worst-Case Scenarios Grow ‘Obsolete’

January 23, 2023
341
Rachel Notley/Facebook

Notley Scorches Federal Just Transition Bill as Fossil CEO Calls for Oilsands Boom

January 23, 2023
313
EcoAnalytics

Albertans Want a Just Transition, Despite Premier’s Grumbling

January 23, 2023
323
Next Post
Nuclear Jordan/Facebook

TC Energy Wants to Supply ‘Small-Scale’ Nuclear Reactors to Alberta Tar Sands/Oil Sands

The Energy Mix - The climate news you need

Copyright 2023 © Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Proudly partnering with…

scf_withtagline
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}