Glad population projections are being respected by council

On a November evening in 2008, as co-chair of Our Caledon Our Choice (OCOC), I stood very proudly before the Town of Caledon council and helped present a petition of more than 2,200 signatures. At my side was my OCOC co-chair Rob Mezzapelli, and Christine Cooper, long-time resident of Bolton and a member of Our Caledon Our Choice.

Our petition called for our Town council to “resist attempts to reopen the growth plan that had been twice endorsed by council (endorsed in August 2006 and reaffirmed in November 2007) and to resist pressure for premature increases of population or expansion of the residential boundaries.” The growth plan we referred to was Official Plan Amendment 203, which contains population forecasts and geographic distributions for Caledon for 2021 and 2031.

After talking to thousands of Caledon citizens, many of whom signed the petition, there was no doubt that the vision of a small safe town was exactly what brought many of us to this place. And that moderate, well-managed growth was a key component for that vision.

While I was present in the audience, council once again took extraordinary measures and brought forward a motion Jan. 26 that re-commits its support for our growth management strategy. Reportedly the catalyst of this motion is that some councillors at the Region of Peel are being “heavily lobbied” to support the removal of our 2021 population target.

This motion affirms that “any efforts at any level of government to remove the 2021 population target for growth in the Town of Caledon be opposed by council.” I would like to thank Mayor Morrison and the five councillors (Beffort, deBoer, Paterak, Thompson and Whitehead) who voted in favour of this motion that reiterates our community’s goal of managed even growth.

Patti Foley,

Bolton