Listen to this articleIt was a pleasure to spend the afternoon with Ministers Graydon Smith, Jill Dunlop and Premier Ford at the Oak Bay Golf Club in beautiful Georgian Bay Township. Thanks to Minister Dunlop, the premier was already briefed on Midland’s housing progress this term and he thanked me for the hard work that our staff and Council has done to get development moving again since the election.
The event was an afternoon of golf and networking for Midland’s growth, looking for help in managing the misapplied Natural Heritage Designations in our official plan that inhibits that growth and talking about how small urban municipalities like Midland and our North Simcoe neighbours can access a share of the new $1.2 billion dollar housing support plan that was just announced by the Premier this past Tuesday at the AMO conference.
I met with supporters from the development community who are keen to find municipalities with progressive leadership that will help enable the growth plans for housing including purpose-built rentals. Midland has available land, none of which is protected or environmentally sensitive, great servicing capacity and desperately needs more attainable housing and I’ll use any and every opportunity to showcase our amazing community and attract economic and housing development.
I wish to thank MPP Dunlop for her help in getting the small urban and rural communities (that lack growth targets) into the new fund and championing the small municipalities across Ontario as an integral part of the province’s housing growth strategy. We may be small but we’re part of the solution and both willing and able to help solve the housing crisis one approval at a time. I made some great contacts and am working to get hundreds of good paying jobs and housing into Midland this term and into the next term.
Next steps for our waterfront will be the public consultations later this fall as we get that project back on track with a mix of public waterfront parkland and economic development that aligns with our forthcoming waterfront master plan. So much opportunity for Midland over the next few years! We need to maintain strong partnerships with our upper tiers of government to succeed and we have the support of both our MPP and Minister Jill Dunlop and her federal counterpart MP Adam Chambers.
Now where did that ball go…