Building sustainable urban communities in Ontario : Building sustainable communities in Ontario : a provincial progress report

More than 90 per cent of the province’s population growth occurred in The past five years, beginning with the adoption of the region from 1996 to 2001.12 The region saw the the Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Act and Plan largest growth in employment in the province over the in 2001, have been a period of major change regarding same five years.13 provincial policies on urban growth and development [...] Approvals continued to be sought for the SuperBuild-initiated highway extensions in the Golden Horseshoe, particularly the Mid-Peninsula (Niagara to GTA) Highway, and the eastward extension of Highway 407 in the absence of the completion of the Growth Plan. [...] Places to Grow It will need to lead and provide the information to sup- The centrepiece of the Province’s efforts to improve port the sub-area assessments into which much of the the integration of land-use and infrastructure plan- detailed land-use and infrastructure planning has been ning has been the GGH Growth Plan, finalized in June deferred. [...] Building Sustainable Urban Communities in Ontario 21 of such criteria in the mandate of the Infrastructure The modifications to the environmental assess- Ontario Corporation, the successor to the Ontario ment process announced in June 2006 seem unlikely Strategic Infrastructure Financing Authority (OSIFA), to improve the situation. [...] A strong focus on containing urban protection legislation (Bill 43, The Clean Water Act), sprawl and promoting more sustainable development and a second round of amendments to the Planning patterns emerged through the work of the Commis- Act, including provisions related to the reform of the sion on Planning and Development Reform, subse- role of the OMB (Bill 51, The Planning and Conserva- quent