Editorial — Let Caledon govern Caledon

April 17, 2015 · 0 Comments

The debate was long and maybe somewhat confusing. It was broken up by a closed session that lasted about 90 minutes.
There are efforts being made to have the long-standing issues of the proposed expansion of Bolton fall onto the desk of someone called “the Provincial Facilitator.” A motion at last Thursday’s meeting of Peel Regional council was to have the Region encourage affected landowners and elected officials from Caledon to work with the facilitator.
The motion might have had some merit had it been moved, or at least seconded, by a Caledon representative on Regional council, but that was not the case. It was moved by Brampton Mayor Linda Jeffrey and seconded by Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie. The motion was deferred by a 13-9 vote, and the fact that all five of Caledon’s reps voted in favour of deferral should say something about the way this matter was handled.
The issue at hand was the Bolton Residential Expansion Study (BRES), and it was on the agenda last Thursday because Regional staff had prepared a progress report on the matter.
Now granted, there were deputations made at the meeting, but the fact is this is not a new issue. In fact, a couple of Regional councillors commented this has been on the table for years. BRES has been discussed at length, both at the Caledon council table and in the community. Nothing in the current proposals has just popped into existence. What’s been put forth has been vetted after lengthy consultation and process.
Councillor Jennifer Innis was able to put forth the deferral idea until the Province makes a formal request for the Region to take part in facilitation.
Some questions were raised as to whether things work that way, or whether it should be the Region that suggested the facilitation process. If that is indeed the case, then should not such a proposal come from one of the Caledon wards? Indeed, should it not have come from Innis herself, as ward councillor involved?
The fact that it didn’t, we would suggest, says a great deal. More important, the five Caledon representatives were agreed on this. That should be a solid indication that Caledon wants to call Caledon’s shots.
Could it be argued that was a case of parochialism? Possibly.
But we’re inclined to think it was more a case of people close to the scene acting the way they believe their constituents want them to act. The Caledon councillors are more familiar with what’s going on in Bolton than their other colleagues because that is part of their job. And let us also not forget that the councillors were given lots and lots of information about what their constituents expect just a couple of months ago, during the election campaign.
This is not a case of some wild plans being frivolously drawn up on a napkin and tossed into the debate. There was nothing new here.
And that includes the concept on who should have the power to make the decisions.
The Caledon councillors know Caledon and have been studying the situation for some time.
So let them make the decisions.