Suzanne D Williams on Unsplash
I have read with interest the thoughts you have recently published of those wishing to stand for Mayor or council members for Oakville. First, I would like to applaud them for stepping forward to be considered for these critical roles, which are time-consuming and difficult but vital to our democracy.
Having lived in Oakville off and on for over 40 years but having worked around the world most of that time, I had no connection to or interest in our local politics.
That changed a number of years ago when my immediate neighbour applied to build over 3000 homes on the golf course next to our house in an area already jammed with traffic and an inadequate number of schools.
Instantly, I became involved and became what is easily derided as a NIMBY (not in my backyard). Then began my education, which may or may not be of interest to those aspiring candidates for council.
What I was against, I discovered when I thought about it, was insufficiently specific.
What I was actually against was this massive unplanned development of green space. Would I be against it if it were much smaller, I wondered? So I became a NTIMBY (not this in my backyard). I was pleased to see the Mayor and Council come out unanimously against it. So they could just vote against it and stop it, I naively thought.
Then my education began. At first, I thought they were simply fighting to save a golf course, wrong. I thought they were fighting to save green space, wrong. So why were they spending so much time, resources and tax dollars? The answer is to protect the official plan, which was designed with input from our citizens on how and where our Town should grow.
As I sat through council and planning meetings and learned more about the multiple lawsuits and appeals launched against the Town on this issue, I learned a lot.
First: Working in a complex political environment is nothing like managing a business, my background, where decisions of the CEO or owner are usually implemented without debate.
Conversely, our council has its hands tied by ever-changing restrictions from the Province and Federal governments and must work in harmony with the Region.
No one on council wants to approve a plan that makes little sense and upsets existing neighbourhoods, but planning is a big problem.
Planning issues seem to be the major theme for most people running to join council, and rightly so.
Here’s my learning from being engaged for the past five years.
Who is causing the planning issue? The Provincial Government
Why: because they are forcing the communities around the GTHA to absorb too many people. This causes high density or sprawl, some of the worst traffic in North America and insufficient school space and other resources.
Who is causing our Mayor and council to NOT control growth? The Provincial Government
More and more, they restrict and limit what council can do, notably through the appeals body, a quasi-legal entity they support to arbitrate between developers and the Town. In my five years of observing, it was OMB, LPAT, dissolved, reborn and now called OLT. Different names, but interestingly mostly have the same faces.
To a layperson, it’s a bunch of provincial experts who don’t live here but sit in judgment and decide our future in very, very expensive, drawn-out hearings.
In most cases, the Town sets planning requirements; the developer says, “no, I want many more stories for the building and far less parking,” and the battle begins.
No one councillor or Mayor can change this, but by building consensus and working as a team, our current council, along with the leadership and political skills of our Mayor and Regional chair, have enabled Oakville to win many battles and benefit our Town.
Naively, I thought what our councillors and Mayor did was pretty easy, photo ops, the odd meeting. It isn’t; it’s hard work, frustration, patience, skill and teamwork. If you want to affect change in planning, talk to our MPPs. Good luck.
