Midland, Penetang have much to lose under growth plan

Letter to Simcoe.com December 9 2010
NORTH SIMCOE – Regarding the proposed amendment for the Simcoe sub-area to the Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe, 2006, under the authority of the Places to Grow Act, 2005, I have a concern.
The Ministry of Infrastructure has incorrectly based our future economic welfare on a worn-out and completely outrageous template of growth, which, unfortunately, has already destroyed quiet little farming towns and villages.
The template of growth – touted as the model of generating economic prosperity for communities – in reality generates prosperity that only reaches speculators and developers.
This template has systematically reduced Ontario’s ability to feed itself. That is an emergency in itself, as the most arable lands in the world are paved over without any regard for the future needs of these communities.
The challenge of planning the future direction of the province – and whether towns like Midland and Penetanguishene should be considered as future urban nodes – is difficult.
Then again, it likely is not that difficult to remove these two wannabe suburb prospects from the list, since people in southern Ontario run to the Midland/Penetanguishene area to escape suburbia.
Ironically, establishing Midland and Penetanguishene as urban nodes would be developing exactly that which suburbanites rush up highways 400, 11 and 27 every weekend to avoid.
These “cottage country” communities have few means of generating prosperity other than their tourism and hospitality industries. They don’t need to be developed as urban nodes.
What they do need is to develop more imagination along the lines of developing economic prosperity for themselves without unwittingly setting fire to the only economic engine available to them.
The Ontario Growth Secretariat and the Ministry of Infrastructure should turn their attention to goals that would actually benefit all of the participants in the communities they purport to speak on behalf of – including Midland and Penetanguishene.
Steven Kaasgaard, Penetanguishene