East Gwillimbury council frustrated with lack of York Region support for growth targets

Town's population projected to quintuple by 2041

Yorkregion.com
Aug. 26, 2015
By Simon Martin

The message echoed out of East Gwillimbury council chambers loud and clear Tuesday: it’s time for York Region to put up or shut up.

Council members lobbed repeated potshots at the region for its 2041 growth projections that have the town ballooning to a staggering population of 108,700 from its current 22,473.

The problem for council is East Gwillimbury had already been slated to grow to a population of 86,500 by 2031, only to have its long-term plans severely hampered by the region’s sudden delay of the Upper York Sewage Solutions project due to financial reasons.

“I’m not sure how, in all good conscience, we can move forward with these numbers without certainty about the (sewage issues),” Mayor Virginia Hackson said, noting council and staff continue to struggle with when the region will build the infrastructure.

The current timeline is for the UYSS to come online in 2024.

Other members of council were more blunt in their assessments of the growth numbers.

“I don’t feel like this exercise has any validity,” Councillor Tara Roy-DiClemente said. “I’m not interested in looking at growth scenarios without certainty for servicing and transportation.”

Councillor James Young was baffled by the projections when the region is crying poor and holding up necessary infrastructure in the municipality.

“We have to stop and say, ‘No more’,” he said. “I want to give the region the benefit of the doubt, but their track record has not been very good.”

The lack of trust in the East Gwillimbury chambers toward the region was palpable. “(York) keeps pulling out the rug from under us,” Councillor Marlene Johnston said.

It’s not just about servicing but also transportation, she added.

“We need an east-west road for all the new houses,” she said.

Council had little interest in even considering the 2041 numbers from the region.

The discussion was part of the town’s comments to the region on the preferred 2041 growth scenario.

Beyond East Gwillimbury, the population is projected to grow from 56,200 to 81,000 in Aurora, and 85,700 to 114,900 in Newmarket by 2041.

The employment forecast shows Aurora will have 38,000 jobs in 2041, up from 27,000 in 2014.

Newmarket will host 56,600 jobs, while EG will grow to 41,900, up from 42,700 and 9,500, respectively.

Several factors helped decide the forecasts, including land supplies, changing demographics and economics, municipal policies, infrastructure capacity and provincial growth plan requirements, which set minimum intensification, employment and population targets.

The region gets its growth target from province.