It’s more than just employment lands and housing for Guelph; some industries and housing opportunities plan to walk away if the city doesn’t stick with the province’s modifications to the official plan for the municipality.
The city was asked by the province to send a letter by Dec. 7 with recommendations to speak to Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Paul Calandra’s reversal of provincial modifications to municipalities' official plans. Guelph is one of those municipalities.
The four recommendations from city staff were voted on separately by council at a special meeting on Tuesday. The four motions as amended were voted nine in favour and four opposed.
The recommendations in the initial report were:
- That Report 2023-459 including feedback outlined in Attachment 1 be submitted to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing as the comments from City Council on the modifications and proposed changes to Official Plan Amendment 80.
- That staff be directed to work with Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing to retain modifications that are conformity related.
- That staff be directed to prepare detailed cost estimates of additional costs incurred by the City as a result of the Provincial modifications to OPA 80 on April 11, 2023 and that any additional costs that have occurred since the Provincial announcement on October 23, 2023 and that they be submitted to the Province.
- That staff be directed to submit comments as outlined in Report 2023-459 to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing on ERO Posting 019-7885 regarding the Planning Statute Law Amendment Act.
But before it came to voting, delegations took the floor and amendments were made to recommendations one and four.
Delegate David Falletta, a planner for Bousfields, a consultant for owners of NewCold, cautioned that the company may walk away from opening up in Guelph. The cold storage and manufacturing facility would be located at 384 Crawley Rd. in the south end.
If the minster’s changes were reversed “what sort of additional processes or timelines this would add to the project?” asked Coun. Rodrigo Goller to Falletta.
“The roll backs will now require potentially additional applications that will prolong the development of the site by, in my opinion, at least a year. And in which case, NewCold will potentially be looking for additional sites, and may just leave the City of Guelph because this is a base for them that will serve as a greater area, and they'll be looking elsewhere,” said Falletta.
The facility would be 160,000 sq/m, include 570 jobs and “the development alone would be over a billion dollars,” said Falletta.
Mayor Cam Guthrie gave councillors a bit of a pep talk as he called it.
“This is a moment about a $1 billion investment, and hundreds of jobs walking away,” said Guthrie, who appeared virtually since he is currently in Dubai attending a climate conference.
“This is a scary moment right now,” he said.
Guthrie said in his opinion it would be a reputational vote. “Are we open for business? Or aren’t we? Could things in process been better to date? Yes, I agree. But this moment right now is about us sending a signal that this council is open for business, good investment in jobs,” he said.
“I take exception to Guelph is not open for business because we’re not prepared to clean up the mess the province made,” said Coun. Cathy Downer.
She said we’ve done very well business-wise in the city.
NewCold wasn’t the only project considering leaving.
“The question on if we couldn't mitigate, would we walk away? One hundred per cent we walk away,” said Mike Labbé, president and CEO of Home Opportunities.
Home Opportunities is a non-profit model to bring affordable home ownership to people who, for example, may make less than $35,000 a year. Kiwi Newton is the construction group to build on site.
Labbé’s request in his delegation to council was for it to continue with the province’s change to the official plan. The province permitted 280 Clair Rd. W. as a high-density residential designation. It was previously designated as industrial.
“If we can't mitigate properly, we can’t move our clients and that's what we're paid to do is put them into a proper place to live,” said Labbé.
As for the letter to the province Guthrie said “I'm happy to make the letter transparent and public as soon as possible.”
“We’re here because minister Calandra said that they didn't do their due diligence. And he sent it back to the municipalities because he thinks we should be doing our due diligence. And I think that's what we're being asked to do tonight,” said Downer.
