“Growth is the most important issue facing our area today. It affects our environment, our ability to prosper economically, our lifestyle. If mistakes are made, they will be hard to correct. We’ll have to live with them for many, many years. Let’s get it right from the start,” said Coun. Barry Ward, who chaired a Barrie council committee that examined the county’s proposed plan, released two weeks ago; Ward also served on the city’s negotiating team during the failed Barrie-Innisfil boundary talks.
“Managing growth for our future and our children’s future means preserving land and finding alternatives to excessive automobile use. It means providing a variety of housing choices. It means planning in a responsible and sustainable manner. We believe the province’s Places to Grow plan is the right path to follow. Barrie is living this change already. It is time for the County of Simcoe to embrace this change and reconsider their draft growth plan.”
Ward said the county’s plan promotes “greenfield development over revitalization, rural sprawl over intensification, more long-distance commuting instead of live-work communities, private automobiles over public transit, and patchwork development over complete communities.”
“The county plan contravenes Places to Grow and provincial policy direction ... Furthermore, the plan encumbers the City of Barrie’s ability to achieve the expectations set out for it as an urban growth centre.
“Barrie fully supports Places to Grow, the province’s award-winning growth plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe area. That plan challenges municipalities to become complete communities, ones offering a full range of jobs, housing, services, public transit and health care, along with recreational, educational and cultural opportunities.
“It asks them to end sprawl, intensify development, preserve farmland, get people out of cars, protect the environment, make efficient use of infrastructure and take advantage of economic opportunities. The County of Simcoe’s plan consistently fails to respond to this challenge. Instead, it offers business as usual.”
According to the county’s draft plan - which is to be approved by county council May 27 - economic growth would be focused in an enterprise zone in South Simcoe along Highway 400; the county has also designated the Alliston area, where Honda is planning to expand, for growth.
Barrie would receive only 10,000 of the 228,000 more residents Ontario has allocated for the area over the next 25 years; in terms of jobs, Barrie would receive 2,000 more jobs — or 15 per cent of new jobs projected for the region. The city’s population would reach 185,000 in 2031, and its jobs 90,000.
This ignores the trend that Barrie has been leading the country in employment growth, Ward argued. Between 2001 and 2006, businesses in the city created 9,000 jobs, which is more than Toronto over the same time. “These jobs came to Barrie because of the strong labour force, the availability of employment lands and the strength of the region’s economy.
“However, we still have a large percentage of long-distance commuters. A growth plan for Simcoe County must use this as a tool with which to build the area’s economy, directing growth to municipalities that can offer public transit and full urban services. By bringing jobs closer to the workers who fill them, we help both the environment and people’s lifestyles,” he said.
