Some councillors ask Ontario auditor general, integrity commissioner to review city’s urban boundary expansion
Posted Sep 26, 2023 12:33:04 PM.
Last Updated Sep 26, 2023 12:35:39 PM.
A group of Ottawa city councillors have released a letter urging the auditor general and integrity commissioner to investigate the Ontario government’s decision to expand Ottawa’s urban boundary by an additional 654 hectares.
The 11 Ottawa city councillors who signed the letter are Shawn Menard, Glen Gower, Ariel Troster, Sean Devine, Jessica Bradley, Theresa Kavanagh, Marty Carr, Rawlson King, Clarke Kelly, Laine Johnson and Riley Brockington.
“Ottawans watched with interest as your offices concluded their recent respective investigations related to the provincially directed removal of lands from the Greenbelt in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA).” the letter stated. “The resultant findings have led us to question whether similar dynamics were at play in the provincially directed urban boundary expansion in Ottawa in November of 2022.”
11 City of #Ottawa Councillors have released a letter calling on the Provincial Auditor General and Integrity Commissioner to investigate the costly Provincial Urban Boundary expansion in the city. #Ottnews #ONnews #Ottcity #Ontario pic.twitter.com/oGDbebyUWH
— Shawn Menard (@ShawnMenard1) September 26, 2023
The former Ottawa City Council approved an expansion of the urban boundary by 1,281 hectares by 2046.
When the provincial government approved Ottawa’s Official Plan in November of last year, Steve Clark, the former minister of municipal affairs and housing and his office added another 654 hectares to the city’s urban boundary.
“Ottawa planners demonstrated through their analysis that the 654 hectares added by the province to Ottawa’s urban boundary were not needed to meet the target of homes to be built in Ottawa,” the letter said. “They would also be extraordinarily costly to residents of Ottawa. This is mirrored in the Special Report on Changes to the Greenbelt in the GTHA which also concluded that “that there was sufficient land for the target of … homes to be built without [the provincial removal of Greenbelt lands].”
The letter said “Ottawans have yet to see an adequate explanation from the province as to why the work of local land-use planning officials was dismissed by this provincial decision.”
Orleans MPP Stephen Blais had written a letter to Ontario’s acting auditor general, asking for an investigation into Ottawa’s urban boundary expansion.
