Trudeau says build while Oakville scales back housing plans
Published April 24, 2024 at 2:07 pm
As Oakville politicians take a step back from intensification, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was in town today (April 24) to encourage them to build.
In Oakville to spread the word on his government’s housing initiatives, Trudeau said it’s essential to build along transit corridors and near GO stations as well as to open up public land for housing projects.
“The federal government alone cannot solve everything,” said Trudeau indicating that provinces and municipalities must become more ambitious in creating housing opportunities. “No one order of government can solve the housing crisis on its own…but there needs to be more. Municipalities need to step up more with plans for densification particularly around campuses and public transit stops.”
The prime minister also said provinces need to create partnerships with those that can create the infrastructure that will allow for more homes to be built.
“We all need to do our part,” he said adding that all levels of government are being urged to look at all public properties as potential sites to build homes.
Ironically, while Trudeau chose Oakville to encourage his housing plan, at town hall this week, Oakville councillors decided to slow down plans for development around the Oakville GO station.
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Long identified as the area where Oakville will experience future housing growth, the midtown development was expected to be the area where up to 43,000 people would eventually live and work in buildings reaching as high as 48-storeys.
Now, councillors want to scale back the plans by limiting the height of the buildings and reducing the anticipated population growth to 35,000.
At a special council meeting on Monday (April 22), councillors decided to look at how development could now be spread out across the town in other areas that could potentially handle growth.
Oakville’s change in direction follows pushback from the community that often complained that housing targets in midtown were too extreme and would create a concrete jungle of sterile highrises that would lead to increased traffic, noise and pollution.
Town planners are expected to come back with a revised vision for housing development later this summer.