Stop sprawl battle continues
At least five candidates in next month’s city elections are among the leaders of the movement to stop sprawl and protect farmland that won a stunning victory over developers last year. While the current council voted 13-3 to freeze the urban boundary for at least the next 30 years that decision could be overturned by the new council or by intervention from the provincial government.
With at least seven new council members guaranteed after the October 24 elections, major actions approved in the current term could be reversed or modified. That’s less likely because two of the three councillors who favoured residential development of several thousand acres of farmland have decided not to seek re-election. Both Terry Whitehead and Lloyd Ferguson have retired.
The other pro-expansion vote came from Maria Pearson who is running again in ward 10. However the provincial government likely poses the biggest threat of reversing the boundary decision which has now been written into the city’s draft official plan. Queen’s Park has the final say on the plan and the Ford provincial government has repeatedly declared that the firm boundary is irresponsible.
The boundary freeze position could be strengthened if some of the prominent stop sprawl candidates succeed in winning seats on the new council. They include Lynda Lukasik in ward 5, Cameron Krotesch in ward 2, Craig Cassar in ward 12, Kojo Damptey in ward 14, and Alex Wilson in ward 13. All of them delivered delegations to council opposing the staff-recommended urban boundary expansion and most did it more than once last year.
Dozens of delegates spoke on March 29 and helped convince council to order a mail-in survey that drew over 18,000 responses with over 90% opposed to the boundary expansion onto farmland. Among the fifty plus delegates in March were Lukasik, Damptey, Wilson and Krotesch.
The council decision-day on the boundary question was November 9 and Lukasik, Wilson, Cassar and Krotesch were all delegates. Each also submitted written statements. No other candidate running for council delegated on the boundary issue. None appear to have been among the over 1000 letters submitted to council on this topic.
Incumbent councillors who voted for the stop sprawl option and are running again are Maureen Wilson in ward 1, Jason Farr in ward 2, Nrinder Nann in ward 3, Tom Jackson in ward 6 (who spoke repeatedly in favour of the expansion, but in the November vote cast his lot with the majority opposing it), Esther Pauls in ward 7, John Paul Danko in ward 8, Brad Clark in ward 9 and Arlene Vanderbeek in ward 13.
One of the mayoralty candidates also wrote to council in support of a firm urban boundary. In her former position as leader of the Ontario NDP, Andrea Horwath and local MPP Sandy Shaw sent a joint letter to city council in late September of last year. That correspondence secured them first spot for delegations at the November decision meeting. MPP Shaw made that presentation and responded to questions from councillors.
No other mayoralty candidate delegated to council on the boundary issue. The Hamilton Chamber of Commerce submitted a letter supporting expansion of the boundary in March 2021 and sent a delegation. Mayoralty candidate Keanin Loomis was president of the Chamber at that time, but he did not delegate, and the organization’s letter was not signed.
