$54,000,0000 Freeway interchange: Yes!

Report from Bradford West Gwillimbury Council  

By Meade Helman AWARE News Network October 6 2012

1.      Taking one more step toward the $54 mil freeway interchange the COW (committee of the whole) voted to proceed with the design for the interchange. Bond Head Development is funding the study. It was pointed out that BHD owns some of the property the interchange sits on but most of the council did not see this as a conflict of interest. Both Deputy Mayor Rob Keffer and James Leduc voted against the measure, G Lamb and P Dykie were absent , the reminder voted for the measure. 

2.       Council appeared to be confused about the design specifications. The Mayor did say that we need a cloverleaf to handle the volume of traffic 25 years from now.

3.      Council refused to endorse the transit implementation plan because they didn’t think it would make it through budget planning because of the expense. Councillor Simpson said that since he wasn’t at the meeting he couldn’t endorse the output of the town committee and didn’t believe the number. EDITORIAL COMMENT: Apparently he hadn’t read the report. What purpose does a committee serve if their output is completely ignored.? Council voted to defer: Against deferral: R Keffer and James Leduc. For Deferral: Mayor White, Carl Hordyk, Del Crake, Raj Sandau.

4.      Council voted down an endorsement for a solar farm and ground-mounted solar installations but did vote to endorse roof mounted units in BWG. This doesn’t have the force of law but helps determine which projects get approved for the FIT program. EDITORIAL COMMENT: Good approach to proceed with green energy and preserve farmland.

5.       R Keffer introduced information on Slapp Suits and how those can negatively impact citizen participation. James Leduc asked for a report from staff on how this can be avoided in BWG.  EDITORIAL COMMENT: Good step towards transparency.

6.      The mayor pointed out that we were losing existing industry because of high development charges and taxes. He asked for a staff study on how to alleviate those charges. EDITORIAL COMMENT: There is currently a glut of industrial property in Simcoe County and businesses are beginning to realize it is a buyers’ market. It is bad news for BWG because much of the expensive parts of the plan for growth is financed by development charges.