Horwath speaks out about Ontario’s forced urban boundary expansion in Hamilton

The province has decided to order Hamilton to expand the urban boundary.

Mayor-elect Andrea Horwath says city staff are working to assess what the decision means and says council will decide together how to respond.

A large chunk of rural land with narrow country roads and farms spread throughout the east and south of Hamilton will be the site of new housing developments.

“We need to build homes, and we’re going to build homes, and that’s gonna lower the cost of home ownership, and its also going to employ people,” Premier Ford said.

The decision to order Hamilton to expand its urban boundary despite last year’s decision by council to keep it firm came from the ministry of municipal affairs and housing Friday evening.

It is ultimately up to the province to approve every municipality’s official growth plan.

The area slated for development is in the vicinity of Twenty Road West, Twenty Road East, White Church Road, and Elfrida.

The city estimates it to be about 22 hundred gross hectares of land.

“The problem is that you can’t just grow communities without things like roads and underground infrastructure, and sewer and water capacity,” Horwath said.

Horwath says she and many of Hamilton’s councillor-elects are concerned about the decision, saying growth doesn’t pay for itself and it will have an impact on the city’s tax base.

“We already have an infrastructure deficit problem in this city, so where are we going to get the money to build these new developments or to provide the servicing for these new developments?” Horwath said.

Despite saying she still believes Hamilton should maintain a firm boundary something she campaigned on Horwath isn’t committing to pushing back against the province yet.

Horwath says city staff are working on an assessment of what the decision means that she expects complete by the end of the month, and at that point, the new council together will decide what to do.

Some people are calling the province’s move to override the boundary decision made by an elected council an affront to democracy.

CHCH News asked Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Steve Clark for an interview about this but was told he was unavailable.

In a statement sent to CHCH News over the weekend, the minister’s office pointed out that city staff actually recommended expanding the boundary when this came up at council last year, saying city planners say there is not enough land within the urban boundary to accommodate Hamilton’s expected growth to a population of more than 800,000 people by 2051.

WATCH MORE: Full interview with mayor-elect Andrea Horwath