Farmland conversion and landfill sites

[ac3r]

For everyone saying we shouldn't help out companies coming to our region, would you say the same for tech? We provided many incentives for the plethora of tech companies to come here. If it weren't for them, this region wouldn't have changed the way it did. Or, are you only against this because it's possibly for automobile manufacturing and in our suburbs?

[bravado]

A new 700 acre housing development would be a financial liability and incur massive future costs on the city, all for short-term benefit in fees.

A 700 acre industrial site (with actual projects attached to it) would be a financial benefit for a lot of people and help an industry that almost everyone believes is essential: manufacturing.

We have ample land for housing, we just choose not to use it smartly. Land for industry is another issue entirely and has a very different set of demands.

The countryside line seems to mean very different things when applied to housing vs industry and I don't think that's a crazy claim.

[Bytor]

Sure it is sprawl but the truth is there is no where to build something that large within the existing countryside line which would natural mean more sprawl, the area that Bytor points out is already being developed with warehouses, you have the entire iPort complex going in along Allendale Rd you also have everything along Boychuk Dr and Intermarket Rd. Plus everything that is already approved for that area.

That specific segment is, yes, but there are plenty of other 700-800 acre areas in that same are which are not already being built upon and are already designated as future employment lands.

People need to do some research before making absolutist statements like "there's nowhere else".

[Bytor]

For everyone saying we shouldn't help out companies coming to our region, would you say the same for tech? We provided many incentives for the plethora of tech companies to come here. If it weren't for them, this region wouldn't have changed the way it did. Or, are you only against this because it's possibly for automobile manufacturing and in our suburbs?

I don't think anybody minds helping businesses, as long as it isn't outright corporate welfare.

The problem here is that the specific incident was done in a shady, secretive, and underhanded way, and directly contradicts long-held goals of The Region.

[bravado]

I will add: until they tell us what the fuck this is actually for, it's an underhanded and shady thing that we shouldn't support. The contempt for the voter is apparent.

[neonjoe]

The regional growth plan will be dead soon anyways since the cities and townships will be in full control of their on planning as per the recent provincial legislation. We know that the townships and Cambridge want sprawl. The two other cities are a bit more progressive. It was done in a shady manner and I can definitely see that this was pushed from the top down.

[danbrotherston]

A new 700 acre housing development would be a financial liability and incur massive future costs on the city, all for short-term benefit in fees.

A 700 acre industrial site (with actual projects attached to it) would be a financial benefit for a lot of people and help an industry that almost everyone believes is essential: manufacturing.

We have ample land for housing, we just choose not to use it smartly. Land for industry is another issue entirely and has a very different set of demands.

The countryside line seems to mean very different things when applied to housing vs industry and I don't think that's a crazy claim.

I'm sorry...how does a 700 acre industrial site not incur costs on the city? The city still has to maintain and build roads and services for the site. Possibly they are different services, but also possible than in 80 years we have to spend eleventy trillion dollars removing environmental contamination spread over 700 acres...or more likely just have a highly contaminated wasteland in what will no doubt be the middle of the city.

As for the benefits, a single 700 acre site like this will not contribute overly much in property taxes either. And while many people believe that manufacturing is essential, housing....also fucking essential.

As for whether we have enough land for industry, we do...at least according to the regional plan. And no, the countryside line should not mean different things when applied to housing or industry....otherwise it would say that. Feel free to read the documents around it.

[danbrotherston]

For everyone saying we shouldn't help out companies coming to our region, would you say the same for tech? We provided many incentives for the plethora of tech companies to come here. If it weren't for them, this region wouldn't have changed the way it did. Or, are you only against this because it's possibly for automobile manufacturing and in our suburbs?

I don't think anybody minds helping businesses, as long as it isn't outright corporate welfare.

The problem here is that the specific incident was done in a shady, secretive, and underhanded way, and directly contradicts long-held goals of The Region.

Lol...I mean, I do oppose corporate handouts for the tech sector too.

But improving downtown (or gentrifying) if you want to call it that is not the same thing as a corporate handout. The cities which bent over backwards to give Amazon the most money so they'd move in their HQ2 were utterly pathetic.

But I do love the implication that I don't actually have values but instead just hate cars and suburbs...

[creative]

We can build all the housing we want but people also need good paying jobs to be able to afford that housing. Surprisingly a lot of the recently purpose built (the last 2 or 3 years) rental buildings downtown still have large for rent move in now signs. The rents in these buildings are ridiculously expensive. I know a lot of people that work at Toyota. It may not be the greatest job, but for someone with limited or no post secondary education, they are doing quite well for themselves.

[ac3r]

"Spend a eleventy trillion dollars on clean up"...

Sigh, lol. Better we place industries here in a nation that can and will actually clean any contamination up, rather than send it overseas where regulations are less strict and workers get abused. We get jobs, the economy booms and we keep our environment as clean as possible.

It's nonsense "progressive" attitudes like this that are pushing me more and more to be willing to vote Conservative just so we don't shoot ourselves in the foot economically over some brain dead, worms in the brain ideology.

[danbrotherston]

We can build all the housing we want but people also need good paying jobs to be able to afford that housing. Surprisingly a lot of the recently purpose built (the last 2 or 3 years) rental buildings downtown still have large for rent move in now signs. The rents in these buildings are ridiculously expensive. I know a lot of people that work at Toyota. It may not be the greatest job, but for someone with limited or no post secondary education, they are doing quite well for themselves.

Except we don't have a shortage of jobs. Unless something has changed drastically with the economy and I haven't heard about it, the employment rate has been in the typical low range.

This is unlike housing which has had a clear and growing deficit for years.

So we have a crisis in one thing, which we won't fix, and we have no crisis in a thing we'll do anything to fix.

[ac3r]

Someone has clearly been out of the region a bit long. There are so many people fighting for jobs now, whether it's minimum wage, industrial, trades or specialized work in niche fields. Dumping about 800-900'000 people in the country each year results in job scarcity and extreme competition. We need every single job we can attract here.

[tomh009]

About 500K permanent residents per year. Non-permanent ones generally leave once their work permits expire so you can't really count all of those.

[Acitta]

‘The City of Waterloo believes in the country side line’

The City of Waterloo is standing by the region’s smart growth plan that keeps new development within a countryside line as almost every other municipality in the region jumped at the chance to open about 7,000 acres of new lands to developers.

Wellesley Township is the only other municipality in the region to turn down the Ford government’s offer to expand their boundaries. Township Mayor Joe Nowak said the rural municipality of about 11,000 people does not have the infrastructure to support more housing right now.

[dtkvictim]

About 500K permanent residents per year. Non-permanent ones generally leave once their work permits expire so you can't really count all of those.

Why can't you count them? According to StatsCan we had an increase of 804,901 non-permanent residents, the majority being temporary workers and most of the rest being students (i.e. temporary workers). If that was the total number and it was relatively unchanging then sure, but that's the net increase. At least for the years this increase has been happening, it seems fair to assume this has an effect on the labor market. Statistics aside, anyone looking for a job (such as in both my household and in my local family) could tell you something is not right. Even not looking for a job, the signs are there. Spend an hour in a coffee shop and you'll see more people come in with resumes than you previously would've seen in months or even a year.