Letters

Resident upset with meeting

January 24, 2019   ·   0 Comments

OUR READERS WRITE

The council meeting January 15th was a disgrace. 

 Why would you put a public meeting on an asphalt plant proposal on the same agenda as a motion on Bill 66? Unless it was to hope that we would lose hope, on ever having our Regional Councillors motion heard. 

 Having waited two and a half hours I was appalled by council’s lack of knowledge on this Bill. Every one of you should have spent the time to read the Bill and understand its legal implications. 

Do you not have a legal department? 

Why are citizens more cognizant of this Bill than our elected officials? 

You do not get to cherry pick which parts of the Bill you can enact once it becomes law. You will not be in compliance of Ontario Law if you attempt public meetings or public consultations. There will be no Growth Plan or any other plan. Bill 66 becomes law once Parliament enacts this Bill and developers will expect you to use this “tool”. You are leaving yourselves open to all kinds of lawsuits from both sides of the table. 

Perhaps that’s convenient for your freight village. You may feel the freight village and the income it will provide is worth our health and water safety. 

If we cannot appeal to common sense than perhaps we can appeal to your sense of self-preservation. 

 1) Allowing the Province to shift the blame to municipalities when the consequences of Urban Sprawl are felt in the coming decade is reckless and foolish. You will be blamed when a resident’s water is poisoned. And it will be poisoned because the bill allows for lazy controls of effluent and toxicity. 

2)This Bill will slow development permits that will need to go to the Ministers office and could take at least six months to be approved. You have not gained efficiency. 

3) This Bill primarily affects rural areas. It is not an urban concern. It will raise our taxes due to the increase in sprawl. 

 After last night it occurs to those of us who care about where we live, that the current mayor and majority of councillors must be incompetent stewards of the Town of Caledon or they would have seen through this very thinly veiled attempt by the Province to shift liability. This bill is not “complicated”. It’s quite simple. Either you respect and value your residents, their health and 

well-being, their right to freedom of speech and the democratic process, or you don’t. 

 I formally request that Ian Sinclair’s motion be brought back to council in a timely matter before the second reading at Queens Park. I also request it be given the attention it deserves by the Mayor, The CAO Mike Galloway and the 

councillors of the Town of Caledon. 

I await your response. 

Jenni LeForestier 

Caledon 

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