Have you wondered how the local candidates in the provincial election plan to deal with population growth?
Since Ontario Progressive Conservative leader and then-premier Doug Ford called an early election on Jan. 28, candidates have been lining up to offer their visions for the riding of York-Simcoe before voters go to the polls on Feb. 27 — about 15 months ahead of schedule.
As part of our Ontario Votes election coverage, BradfordToday attempted to ask all eight registered candidates to explain how they would tackle four key issues in the riding: traffic and transportation, lack of access to health care, the need for more spaces in schools, and growth management.
In order of the number of votes received in the riding for each party during the 2022 election, this is how candidates responded to the question: If elected, how would you address growth management — including handling the housing crisis while also addressing impacts on the environment and agriculture?
Fatima Chaudhry — Ontario Liberal Party
York-Simcoe’s farmland and green spaces are being threatened by uncontrolled urban sprawl. While development is necessary, it must be sustainable and well-planned. I will fight for policies that protect farmland, support local farmers, and preserve our environment. Growth should not come at the expense of clean water, green spaces, or food security.
Justin Graham — Ontario New Democratic Party
One of the issues around housing is the finite amount of land that we can grow our food on and the fast-paced population growth overtaking communities in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area). Farmland and urban sprawl are in direct competition and regulations are being trampled in the name of profits.
With over 25 years in the construction industry and my analytical skills, I believe there are bills that can be introduced to build housing in a safe, efficient manor without infringing on the ecosystems we rely on.
Brent Fellman — New Blue Party of Ontario
One of the policies of the New Blue Party is to protect farmland.
There needs to be a balance. You want to grow ... and you want commercial and industrial to pay a lot of the taxes so residents aren’t overburdened, but you can’t grow so much that you just keep giving away your farmland.
If you’re going to forcibly expropriate farmland ... that’s just shooting (ourselves) in the foot. It’s making us more vulnerable to things like tariffs because we’re producing less food. And we have more and more people coming to Canada all the time, so we’re going to need more food.
You gotta grow upwards. Let’s infill the areas that ... are already in a residential or commercial area, and build near the transit.
We’ve got a big country, so lets use it. Why get so congested down here? I don’t think it’s smart.
Another thing is the infrastructure. What are we going to do with our garbage, with our water? We need to say that we have limits, and just need to be very smart about how we set those limits.
Sean Conroy — Ontario Libertarian Party
That is a very, very difficult scenario.
I’d continue to streamline the permitting and building processes, working closely with the communities and municipal governments, essentially by identifying and removing unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles ... and promoting, where possible, government-owned properties first before looking outside to rural and agricultural areas.
Obviously paying close attention to protecting the greenbelt as much as possible, but also (incentivizing) builders and investors to basically draw the money in to help get things built faster in ways that would be helpful and innovative, whether it be building up rather than out in certain locations.
Obviously the areas with larger populations can handle taller multi-level buildings, unlike a nice little rural area like Pefferlaw or the outskirts of Bradford where that wouldn’t be palatable for anybody.
The reality is yes, we have the population growth and we do have the housing crisis, but it’s about working with the communities to see how we can develop housing and living situations for all while still maintaining those charms and nuances of the towns that draw people to begin with.
Franco Colavecchia — Ontario Moderate Party
We need something like the Bank of Ontario to be able to have our own mortgage policy and to not be manipulated by the federal government. We will stimulate investors building more homes in Ontario by reducing the over-two-year time to evict bad tenants to just three months as it was seven years ago before the Ford government.
We will put more money in improving the outdated sewage water treatment plants in the municipalities around Lake Simcoe.
Editor's note: Some responses have been edited for length. Caroline Mulroney (Ontario Progressive Conservative Party), Jennifer Baron (Green Party of Ontario) and Alana Hollander (Ontario Party) have not responded to requests for comment as of the publication of this article.