March 1, 2004

Remarks to the Urban Development Institute
by David Caplan, Minister of Public Infrastructure Renewal

Check Against Delivery

Good evening ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for inviting me to join you today.

I appreciate this opportunity to discuss the government’s plans for urban development.

More important, I welcome the opportunity to hear your views on this topic.

We have a common interest.

We want to build more compact, more successful and more prosperous communities:

You have experience and expertise in this field, and I hope you will share them with us.

There is an urgent need for leadership in developing strategies to manage rapid growth in Central Ontario.

Central Ontario is experiencing levels of growth that are virtually unmatched in North America.

In the decade from 1990 to 2001, only Dallas-Fort Worth grew faster than the Toronto-Hamilton census area.

In the Greater Toronto Area alone, we have been adding almost 140,000 people and 50,000 new housing units every year.

This is a testament to the economic strength of the region.

But infrastructure and growth pressures have become an urgent priority.

We must address these issues by building more compact, liveable communities that benefit citizens and ensure continued economic growth and prosperity.

That will require cooperation and collaboration among all of the major participants.

At the provincial level we need to become more involved in big-picture planning.

We need to develop strategies and policies for the long term, including infrastructure and greenlands strategies to implement over the coming decades.

Municipalities need to reconsider how communities are being built.

Local planning needs to re-balance density, environmental preservation, and good community design.

At the federal level, the government needs to become engaged with urban issues.

There is an urgent need for federal participation in funding urban transit and managing major public assets in Central Ontario.

Those are the principal ingredients of a sound growth management strategy.

They reflect the broader policy goals of the Ministry of Public Infrastructure Renewal.

And I believe everyone in this room will agree with those ideas.

In fact I know you will because they aren’t mine; they’re yours.

All of those statements are taken almost word for word from an interesting and valuable document entitled “Investing for Tomorrow,” prepared by the UDI for the Central Ontario Smart Growth Panel.

But it could easily have been prepared by my own policy advisers.

And I quote it today because I want to emphasize how close our vision is to yours.

We have a community of interest.

We both want intelligent, managed growth for the most rapidly growing part of the province.

We both want to develop safe, clean, transit-supportive communities that work for the people who live in them.

And we both agree on the need to protect greenspace and the natural environment, and to control urban sprawl.

By strengthening our communities, we are providing our people a quality of life that is second to none.

Past governments have said the same things and then forgotten to follow through.

But there is a new way of doing business at Queen’s Park.

Some of the first legislation we introduced was designed specifically to protect green space in the Golden Horseshoe, and to slow the pace of residential development in rural areas.

As you know, a Task Force is conducting public consultations on the greenbelt legislation and I am very pleased UDI vice chair, Fraser Nelson was appointed to this task force by Minister Gerretson.

This is a complex issue. The lands on the outer edge of the Golden Horseshoe’s developed areas were the most threatened in Ontario, until we introduced a moratorium on zoning changes.

I know you have some concerns about these measures -- specifically as to how these measures affect the affordability of housing and the impact on land availability.

But building strong, safe, liveable communities is a key priority for the McGunity government.

In part this means protecting green space from urban sprawl.

That should suggest to you that we need an improved model for urban development, one that relies less on Greenfield development, and more on increasing density in existing communities.

Many of you are already thinking in these terms, and the UDI itself has prepared working documents to support that trend.

I applaud those efforts.

My ministry will be providing long-range direction and guidance for infrastructure investments that support growth while protecting the environment.

This will allow us to steer growth towards the areas that can best accommodate it.

For example, the work of the Central Ontario Smart Growth panel, will help us develop a plan to guide growth in the region over the long term – the next 30 to 50 years.

We hope to have a draft of that growth management plan available for public comment in the spring.

In addition, the Greenbelt Task Force will also present a report in the spring. That report will help determine where the greenbelt should go and how it should be implemented.

Most importantly, we are working to ensure that all this work is coordinated and that it fits into the government’s overall growth management initiatives.

One of the key components of managing growth effectively is transit choice.

That will play a crucial role in reducing traffic congestion in our cities.

The GTA is one of the few major growth centres in North America that does not have a regional transportation authority.

The need for a single agency that can coordinate road and transit is obvious to everyone who studies the question.

The McGuinty government will establish a Greater Toronto Transportation Authority to co-ordinate and integrate transportation across the region – both roads and transit.

In the near future, we will begin consulting stakeholders including the UDI on the creation of a GTTA.

The purpose of a GTTA is three fold.

First, we want to make transit seamless and more reliable by improving the linkages between transit services including trains, buses, streetcars and subways.

Second, we want to reduce gridlock in the GTA, which is reducing productivity, and diminishing the quality of family and recreation time.

Finally, we want to develop rider-friendly improvements such as one-fare transit passes and improve the planning and coordination of our transportation systems.

But whether roads, bridges, transit or schools, our infrastructure plans must be financed.

Just last Friday, I released a discussion paper on infrastructure financing and procurement.

This is the first step in the long overdue plan to help build safer, cleaner and more liveable communities across Ontario.

Long hospital wait lists, run down schools, and congestion and gridlock on our roads are the visible signs of the years of neglect and poor planning.

The discussion paper will contribute to the development of a new plan to revitalize public infrastructure in priority areas such as hospitals, schools, drinking water systems, public transit, and roads.

The Ministry of Public Infrastructure Renewal is also in the process of developing a 10-year strategic infrastructure investment plan for Ontario.

In part, this plan will reflect the McGuinty government’s vision for strong, vital communities, where citizens have easy access to the very best public services.

It will be guided by growth management principles that balance our economic, social and environmental objectives.

We seek the cooperation and collaboration of many different partners, including the UDI in undertaking these plans.

This means there will be different points of view and that’s normal – in fact, it’s healthy.

But I think there is a common understanding of our objectives and our goals.

We – and you – want communities that are better places to live – communities that provide the public amenities and public services that improve the quality of our life.

The challenge is to encourage those kinds of communities while we accommodate growth over the next 10 to 20 years. This will be a challenge.

Within a generation, we expect the GTA to grow by about 2.4 million people.

The triangle bounded by Oshawa, Barrie and Niagara Falls will be one of the most heavily urbanized regions in North America.

We must accommodate that growth. But we can’t accommodate it the way we always have.

In the past, our growth has been largely based on the construction of new greenfield residential developments on the boundaries of existing urban areas.

That model served us well. It provided homes for many of our people – quickly, and at a price they could afford.

But unrestricted greenfield development comes with a high price.

Let’s face it; whole communities are built without adequate infrastructure including schools, hospital and medical services and transit.

Residents travel well outside their communities to link up with already stretched roads and transit services. Gridlock and congestion follow.

We need a model of urban development that emphasizes redevelopment of urban brownfields that will make better use of existing facilities, and create more compact communities.

This does not mean halting growth and I want to be very clear about this point.

Managing sprawl does not mean halting growth and development, because clearly we have to manage our changing demographics.

But it does mean managing and planning for growth in different terms.

Infrastructure planning and development can direct growth, as opposed to continually trying to catch up with it.

This type of planning can lead to marked improvement in local economic investment and job creation.

And well-planned, vital communities are more and more the key components of creating a competitive edge in attracting international investment.

As a government, we have set high goals and expectations.

But then, why wouldn’t we. After all, there is no point in soaring towards mediocrity!

When you think about it, this may be our last chance to manage growth in Canada’s most rapidly expanding regions.

But we know it cannot be alone and it sure can’t be done overnight.

We must enlist the aid of organizations like the UDI, to achieve those goals.

I welcome your involvement. I welcome your experience and I welcome your help in building a better Ontario.

Thank you.