Ontario Premier Doug Ford gave little indication Friday that the province will step in and solve Barrie’s boundary expansion for industrial land dispute with its neighbours. He urged local councils to find their own solution.
While in Barrie for a housing announcement this morning, Ford was asked that, given Barrie’s need for industrial land from its neighbours to provide good jobs for the people living in these new homes that are being built in Barrie, and that negotiations have gone nowhere, is the province going to step in and make a decision on this boundary expansion? Or is it going to leave it to the local municipalities?
“I’m just asking that the surrounding regions work together. This is what we do here in Ontario, we all work together,” Ford answered. “We need more industrial land. That creates more opportunities for the whole region, not just for Barrie but the surrounding areas.
“It’s all about working together. Forget about this invisible border that happens. They have the capacity, the infrastructure here in Barrie no matter if it’s water or wastewater, and the other ones don’t,” he added. “They can benefit. These municipalities can benefit and I do not know why they’re not co-operating.
"I encourage you to co-operate — it’s going to benefit your community, it’s going to benefit everyone’s community and it’s going to drive prosperity.”
Barrie Mayor Alex Nuttall has made an argument for city boundary expansion for industrial development, identifying the potential for a combined 2,200 hectares in Oro-Medonte and Springwater townships.
While talks have continued, some behind closed doors, no solution has been reached.
“We are going to work every single day with our partners, whether the province of Ontario and the municipalities around us, to get the job done,” Nuttall said Friday. “It’s not a sole decision by the City of Barrie.
“If it was, we wouldn’t be getting this question right now," the mayor added.
Nuttall appeared before the province's standing committee on heritage, infrastructure and cultural policy, regarding the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing's study on regional governance, on Nov. 6, 2023 to make the case for Barrie’s boundary expansion for industrial development into Oro-Medonte and/or Springwater.
Both township councils were dismissive of the city’s plans.
By mid-November, after Nuttall also made presentations to councillors from both townships, Springwater council voted unanimously to terminate discussions with Barrie about the city’s proposal for boundary adjustments and decided to send a letter to the ministry saying talks on the matter were finished. Oro-Medonte’s council said then it was "not comfortable" with Barrie’s request for land.
Nuttall said Barrie has just more than 200 hectares of privately owned industrial land left within its borders, which has been serviced to various degrees, but that supply isn’t enough to meet demand.
Barrie has all the other ingredients for industrial development, the mayor said, such as power sources, water supply, sewer capacity, transit service to deliver employees, and Georgian College to train them.
And in the city’s Dec. 6 recommendations for its new Official Plan (OP), which designates land use, to Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Paul Calandra, Nuttall said that as Barrie grows there needs to be a sufficient amount of jobs to accompany the housing growth.
In January, the province requested Barrie and Oro-Medonte officials work together to solve boundary, industrial development and employment issues.
Last month, Oro-Medonte council supported increased co-operation between the two municipalities, presenting alternatives to Barrie’s initial proposal. The township has almost 860 hectares of employment land along the Highway 11 corridor, minutes away from the Barrie boundary, that the township says could accommodate the city’s requested land needs and could be developed as employment land.
And earlier this month, Springwater council voiced to resume talks with Barrie officials, but only about cross-border servicing.
Barrie city council pledged to build 23,000 new residential units by 2031 as part of Bill 23, the province’s More Homes Built Faster Act of 2022, which calls for 1.5 million new homes built in Ontario, again by 2031.
Ford was in Barrie on Friday with a provincial cheque for $6.34 million because the city is hitting its housing targets.
