PelhamToday received the follow letter regarding a reader letter published yesterday, How can council justify development vote?
I sympathize with Mike Jones of Fonthill and can only suggest he look at many other municipalities in Niagara Region where many citizens express the same concerns and are similarly ignored by their elected politicians.
Wainfleet, Niagara Falls, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Fort Erie, St. Catharines, Welland, and probably others, are and have been facing similar situations where totally inappropriate developments are being forced on them and have been for years.
Currently it is Ford, and his manic pursuit of development at any cost, who is blamed, an easy target in a region where Liberal and NDP views largely hold sway.
He deserves all the approbation he gets but as in all these cases it is not our politicians who are directly responsible as they are all following policies that are being directed by a government bureaucracy who tells them what to do.
In this case it is primarily planning staff leading the charge and they have been doing it for years. They are likely the biggest development lobby in existence and only exist to recommend developments that they know their elected councils will eventually approve.
After all, they are the only ones in city hall allowed to and even encouraged to meet and discuss developments with potential developers as they wish and over as long as it takes.
And the loss of such badly needed and existing affordable housing has been a part of all those discussions. If anyone actually still believes that your planners couldn’t care less about affordable housing, you haven’t really been taking notice.
Their developer colleagues need to make a profit, not have to lose money, and our planning staffs have a similar incentive, to promote more property taxes in every municipality so that their economic wellbeing continues to prosper.
Follow the money is a much-repeated phrase. Just think about that.
Andrew Watts
Wainfleet
