The Future That Never Was

Growing up I remember reading Popular Mechanics and other magazines which talked about the future. There would be flying cars, televisions painted on a wall, video phones and home computers. There was space travel, trips to the moon and orbiting space stations.

It is amazing how many of these futuristic devices have materialized. What the futurists of that time didn't really understand was the way in which these inventions would change our culture and the way we live.

If there is one preoccupation in Bronte and for that matter Oakville; it is about change and its various facets. From population growth, to traffic, the need for better services, the density of development...the list goes on.

In someways change is gradual, you see a building go up at one location and over a period of time others follow. It's only when you look at a photo taken 10 years ago that you see the fullness of the change.

To give you a sense of the scale of change in Oakville; when I started my career in planning in 1973, Oakville had a population of around 65,000 people. Today's Oakville's population is rapidly approaching 250,000 residents. Having been borne and lived here my whole life (with my family building a home in 1942) the change is even more dramatic.

I thought it might be fun in this blog post to give you a glimpse of futuristic changes that were proposed over the last 50 years that never materialized. At the same time, if they had; how we live, travel and experience our communities could be far different.

Hazel McCallion Mayor of Oakville?

In the late 1950s Oakville grew physically as the former Trafalgar Township and Village of Bronte were amalgamated and its boundaries expanded. In the 1960s the Province of Ontario began to think about future changes to municipal government. The need for a new structure of local government was in response to projections of significant growth forecast to occur by year 2000, over 30 years into the future.

Ontario had initiated a Regional Planning exercise called Design for Development (Toronto Centre Region Plan). It also tasked Thomas Plunkett a professor at Queens University to review the structure and function of local government. Out of that report came recommendations to reduce the number of municipalities and transform the old County system of Government to new Regions with expanded responsibilities of water, sewer, health, social services, police, EMS, planning and roads.

Plunkett also looked a various configurations. One of the options included Oakville being brought together as a new municipality that included Mississauga, Clarkson, Streetsville, Port Credit and Cooksville.

Had this new municipality been created....Maybe, just maybe our Mayor could have been Hazel.

Just as the residents of Bronte fought and objected to becoming part of Oakville, the Plunkett Report was a touch stone of major public debate. At the end of the day the new Regional Government was created using what was the basic geography of the old County of Halton. At the same time however, the independent municipalities of Acton, Georgetown, and Townships of Esquesing, Nassagewaya, Nelson and Trafalgar disappeared.

A New City.... MilOakville?

When the Provincial planners in the late 1960s looked at the growth expected for what today is defined as the GTA, the concept of intensification and density were nowhere on the horizon. At the same time they knew all the growth could not be centred in Toronto. One objective was to balance growth equally to the east (Durham) and west (Peel/Halton) of Toronto. There was also an exploration of new urban planning and city concepts. Some of these emerged out of England and post war Europe. One in particular drew significant interest; the concept of a new Town or City. In Britain the concept was labelled a Garden City. The idea was to blend these new urban settings with the rural landscape. In Ontario there were 3 sites identified for new town development. One was in Niagara Region, the new town of Townsend. It was selected because of the proximity to hydro in Niagara and new steel works at Nanticoke. It was thought this energy anchor would attract industries and business, which in turn would require a labour force.

Unknown to many, there were two and potentially three new town sites closer to Oakville.

The Toronto Centred Region Plan contained two very large "blobs" on the map of Halton. One was labelled Milton West. It was largely centred around the site of what today is Halton's waste management site. The second site was labelled (somewhat creatively) Milton East. It was centred around where you would find the Terra Garden Centre located at Trafalgar and Britannia Roads. These were more than just planning concepts on a map. The Ontario Government began the purchasing of land for Milton East in the early 1970s and within a five year span had secured ownership of over 3000 acres.

At the same time Provincial land acquisition continued with a further 1200 acres centred around Palermo, north of Hwy 5, eastward to where OTMH is today.

Combined these land could have accommodated at least 100,000 people.

With the creation of the Region of Halton and being responsible for the structural and growth planning:, in the early 1980s it embarked on its own long term structural planning process, the Halton Urban Structure Review. This time, the horizon stretched out to 2031. It looked at the new Town concepts in Milton West and East and added two more. One would be centred around the small hamlet of Campbellville (Guelph Line at Hwy 401) and another at Hornby (Trafalgar and 401). All of these concepts were rejected for various infrastructure, environmental and cost implications. As these concepts were under consideration and found to be unworkable, the Province began the process of selling of the Milton West and Palermo lands, ending any vision of a New Town.

A Skyway Tunnel?

When the Burlington and Garden City Skyways were constructed the Province of Ontario had an inventive way of paying for the cost of these structures. Similar to the United States, toll booths were put in place. For the grand sum of 10 cents, a Canadian dime (each way) you could use these state of the art bridges and avoid the long waits at lift bridges across the canals.

Some will recall the blizzard of 1978. This storm resulted in the closure of the Burlington Skyway for 5 days. At the same time, closures due to high winds became more common occurrences and traffic volumes were increasing creating congestion and impacting the economy.

The Province began a process to look at solutions to this combination of problems. Given the importance of the QEW and direct connections to the US and the GTA/Montreal economic centres options were limited to a twinning of the structures and tunnelling. By the early 1980s when these options were being considered, Halton was well into the process to develop a Master Plan for the Waterfront from the entrance to Hamilton Harbour to Winston Churchill Blvd in Oakville. Burlington Beach/Spencer Smith Park had been identified as potential Regional Waterfront Park. One of the barriers and limitations were the existing massive hydro towers. Halton and Burlington took on a significant advocacy roll in supporting a tunnel option. This would allow for the removal of the towers and to be buried as part of the tunnel construction. The biggest challenge to be over come by the tunnel option was the depth of the Burlington/Hamilton Ship Canal into Hamilton Harbour. Because of the increasing size and drafts of ships on the Great Lakes, the tunnel/cut approaches to the canal (to achieve low grades) were lengthy, wide, costly and require more land. Next would be the costs of removing the existing bridge structure. On the other hand, the tunnels would improve public access to the beach, open up more parkland and eliminate the need for the lift bridge.

At the end of the day, cost and operational issues favoured the twinning option and the new structure came into operation in 1985....without the 10 cent toll.

Training the Best...In Ontario?

In addition to purchasing land to deal with expected growth, the Provincial Government of the late 1960s made other land acquisitions in Oakville. Some of this was directed at creating a new "urban park"; what we now know as Bronte Creek Provincial Park. There were other pieces of land purchased on the east side of Hwy. 25, north of the QEW. The purpose was to create and connect a GTA wide greenbelt, as part of the Provincial Parkway Belt West Plan.

One of these parcels included the land which is now home to the Halton Regional Administration and Police Headquarters. Also included in this assembly were the lands which became home to the "Sawhet" Golf Course.

The Province proposed to build the Ontario Sports and Training Complex on the what are now the Regional Headquarters Lands. Conceptually, the idea of this facility was a central place to train and house Ontario's best athletes for the Olympic and then British Empire (Commonwealth) Games. Beyond the concept, detailed designs or a master plan for the site were never developed (and presented publicly). However, given what was built for when Ontario hosted the PAN AM games; this site could have included Olympic scale pools, tracks, field houses, gymnasiums and velodrome.

Around 1972, there was a significant policy change in Ontario, as the Province moved away from large scale land use planning, development policy and infrastructure and shifted more money into the education system, including the Community Colleges and University expansion. As with the Milton East Lands; a process of jettisoning these land assets was undertaken. In the case of the Ontario Sports and Training Complex, they were purchased by the Region of Halton for its headquarters and Police Building. The lands north of the Regional Headquarters were also deemed surplus and initially leased for the Sawhet Golf Course and then sold off to its owner.

A High Speed, Magnetic Levitation Mono Rail Train ?

For many Oakville and Halton residents (until the pandemic) part of the daily routine included taking the GO Train into the City for work. Others use the GO Train to get to a ball game, the Leafs, Raptors, a play or the CNE. Over the years, it has grown in destinations served, including weekend trips to Niagara Falls. Service has improved from hourly to 15 minutes in peak periods. GO Transit (trains) was first conceived in 1967 as a 3 year experiment. It started with 32 coaches, eight GP 40 TC locomotives and 8 cab cars. There was also an order for 9 self-propelled multiple unit coaches.

Service was focused on the Lakeshore West Line. By the mid-70s the public had embraced this new way to commute to Toronto. More stations were added, service and equipment improved. However, GO was completely dependent and at the mercy of both CN and CP for tracks and capacity. It was necessary to lease track capacity, which was closely guarded by the railway companies for their industrial and interprovincial passenger rail traffic.

Effectively, GO was dealing with a monopoly which could charge what ever it wanted, not just for track rental, but off loading maintenance, repair and new equipment costs, even though there was a direct benefit to industrial and long distance passenger traffic.

This arrangement reached a head with the then Minister of Transportation, Jim Snow, who was also Oakville's own Member of Provincial Parliament, began to search out a solution that was in the complete control and ownership of Ontario.

Legislation was created and approved to create a Crown Agency, the Urban Transportation and Development Corporation (UTDC). This corporate entity began a study of commuter rail technologies, looking to Europe while developing a master network plan for the Greater Toronto Area. UTDC eventually entered into a partnership with Krauss-Maffei a German company created in 1931 (Munich) to build locomotives and other rail equipment.

The Ontario and Canadian rail systems grew out of steam technology, migrating to diesel with the major focus on industrial and goods movement. In terms of commuter technology diesel trains had many limitations, lower speeds, long time periods between trains, separation of station spacing and short train lengths (number of cars)

Europe on the other hand used electrified technology which over came those limitations. In Japan the first generation of what are now called "Bullet" trains began to surface using magnetic levitation. This technology used electrified magnets which cause the train to ride above the rail at high speeds with no friction. The partnership with Krauss Maffei was intended to develop this technology for the Ontario/Canadian geography and climate.

The partnership developed and built a test track facility in Kingston Ontario. This facility was use to build rolling stock, test reliability and assess the impact of the unique Ontario climate on reliability.

In parallel, the Province commenced a large scale planning and engineering study entitled "GO ALRT" (Go Advance Light Rail Technology). The first route planned was the existing GO Line on Lakeshore, which at that time ran only from Oakville in the West and Pickering in the East to Union Station. The planning would focus on a wider service area from Hamilton and Oshawa to Union with linkages to the Toronto International Airport.

The Advanced Light Rail Technology would run on a narrow gauge rail at high speeds. The studies had to find land, identify station locations (including land for parking) and figure out how to manage the vast number of roads and arterials which would cross this new line all within the narrow corridor of land between the QEW and Lake Ontario and connect into Union Station in Toronto.

Over a 5-7 year period millions of dollars were invested in the test facility, rolling stock, planning and engineering. By the mid 1980s, facing recessions and stratospheric interest rates, the economics and fiscal condition of the Province caused a shift in priorities and the project was abandoned. At the same time, industrial and goods movement had begun to shift away from rail to trucking which freed up capacity for more commuter service. The revenue from commuter traffic put Ontario in far better a position to negotiate deals with the rail companies and in some case acquire existing rail lines. .

Now, nearly 50 years later, the Province; through Metrolinx has a major project underway to electrify the GO Transit system with the first priority the Lakeshore Line. This is being driven now by better technology, climate change challenges for greener solution to travel, compatibility with surrounding land uses and new planning objectives to house people and intensify development around commuter stations.

So was GO ALRT a white elephant, pipe dream or was it ahead of its time?

Halton's Dirty Secret.

Oakville and Halton residents and their elected officials point to the numerous programs, initiatives and policies in place to protect the environment and fight climate change. We now ask about the "environmental impact" of every change occurring in our communities.

On your designated day of the week, residents dutifully put out their blue bin of recycled waste and a green bin with organic waste that will be composted.

For many residents, their knowledge of waste management is limited to the fact the bins went out full and when they get home, are empty on the curb ready to go back into the garage. We also get that nice feeling about being "green".

Until the late 1970s all our garbage went into the ground. Oakville's last dump, located on Fourth Line, north of Hwy. 5 closed in 1982. A similar situation existed in Burlington, Milton and Halton Hills (Acton and Georgetown).

When the Province created Regional Government, it was given the responsibility for Waste Management, but not collection. The staff of the day quickly figured out and reported to Council, that this collection of "dumps" were filling up quickly and a solution needed to be found.

With the declaration there was no place to put our garbage; Halton Region entered into one of the biggest, most divisive and conflict ridden periods of Nimbyism.

While each and every resident wanted that green garbage bag to disappear when put out to the curb, neither did they want a new waste management facility located in their municipality.

Early measures were adopted to divert, recycle and reduce waste. This was a growing trend around the world, but at the same time the processes, markets and technologies were rudimentary at best.

This also meant, changing years of ingrained behaviour. After all; who wanted to spend the time going through their garbage to remove items and put them in a separate container?

By the early 1980s Halton/Oakville were headed to a "garbage crisis" where there would be no place to put those green bags. At the same time, the "rules" of the game were changing as result of increased public awareness. You simply could not dig a hole in the ground anywhere to put garbage. New Environmental regulations required exhaustive study of alternatives and locations with the objective of understanding impacts and conditions. Yet no municipality had attempted to design and execute such a process following this new set of rules.

To secure breathing room Halton Region entered into a financial contract with the Occidental Corporation in Buffalo to ship garbage to an incinerator located near the infamous Love Canal.

For nearly 10 years Halton shipped its garbage to someone else's backyard to be burned.

While the incineration option alleviated the immediate crisis of garbage piling up on the curb, there was an urgent need for a long term, sustainable solution. A staff team was formed and experts retained to identify potential locations and undertake in-depth studies on feasibility, safety and impacts. Because this was a shared problem; potential sites were identified in each of the four municipalities of Halton.

Regardless of technical studies, costing millions of dollars on every conceivable real or imagined impact; opposition was uniform and resolute across all the sites and municipalities.

After years of study and consultation, the expert teams and studies concluded the best, and least impactive site was on Hwy. 25 south of Brittania Road. Not only were there suitable conditions of soil, drainage and limited number of near by residents; the site could be engineered safely and last for at least 25 years.

Despite all the work, Milton's opposition remained firm. The cornerstones of their position, was they had the smallest population, the rural community was being impacted unfairly as urban residents and Oakville, Burlington and Halton Hills, who generate the build of the waste, were solving their problem in someone else's backyard. Milton hired experts to counter that mass of reports and lawyers to launch lawsuits and pursued court injunctions.

The drama continued with Mayor Gord Krantz (who is still Mayor today) threatening to lay down in front of the bulldozers.

Rather than build a garbage dump Halton did something very unique. First, it implemented one of the most aggressive and effective recycling, reuse and waste reduction projects in Ontario. Second, it built a state of the art waste management site. This improved the diversion of hazardous goods, composting, state of the art drainage and methane recovery systems.

There was also recognition the site would not last forever. A master plan was prepared to re-naturalize the site as each cell was filled with the objective of the site being returned to agriculture or recreational use.

Most importantly the site was designed to eventually house a state of the art energy from waste facility once the landfill capacity had been exhausted.

Canadians look to Europe, in particular the Scandinavian countries, for management of the environment, and policies including electrification of transportation systems, reduction in the use of cars, cycling and city design. In terms of waste management, Europe has some of the most leading edge and effective programs. There are also strict policies to reduce packaging and the use of plastic with some of the highest reuse, reduction and diversion rates in the world.

That said, even with all these efforts there is a still a portion of the waste stream that can't be diverted or recycled.

To deal with this problem Europeans have developed the best Energy from Waste Facilities in the world. One such facility is located in Denmark. Interestingly, visually it is right out the front door of the Royal Palace. It is also in the same visual area (site lines) of the new Concert House and other public buildings and parks. Not only visually pleasing, the emissions are limited to steam. Burning up to 400,000 tons of waste per year, it produces electricity to power 60,000 homes and heat 160,000 homes. But there is more; built into the complex is a park, ski hill, recreation facilities and a sports complex.

While Halton had the foresight to reserve space and design a waste management facility that could house an EFW plant, by the early 2000s the Province of Ontario placed restrictions on these facilities. In the case of Halton's Waste Management Site an Environmental Certificate permitting the plant subject to further approvals were removed.

Now 40 years later Halton must begin the process of figuring out where to put its waste. What is clear, there will be very little appetite to put our garbage in someone else's backyard live we did 25 years ago.

GO Boat!

We all know and have experienced growing congestion on our roads and transit systems. Commuting times into Toronto by car have increased dramatically, while GO Transit continues to squeeze more service out of each line in the GTA to provide an alternative and reduce congestion.

As mentioned earlier, Halton started the preparation of a Waterfront Master Plan in the late 1970s. That plan created the various waterfront trails, major Regional Waterfront Parks at Bronte, BurlOak and Spencer Smith/Beachway along with harbour improvements. These efforts have dramatically expanded public access to the Lake relative to what existed in 1974, when Halton Region was created and tasked with large scale planning responsibilities.

By the early 1990s, the Province also recognized the importance of the Lake Ontario shoreline and tasked former Toronto Mayor David Crombie to connect the various components in each Region through an overall guiding framework.

With this renewed interest and focus, private sector entrepreneurs began to look at tourism opportunities. Some of these included the use of high speed hydrofoils for day trips between Rochester NY and Toronto and Toronto and Niagara On The Lake. The Rochester service materialized and operated for a few years. However, technical problems and low demand caused the business to fail.

On a few occasions, Halton was approached by entrepreneurs to operate cross lake commuter services. The interest in Halton was sparked by the planning and creation of the new outer harbour as part of the Bronte Heritage Waterfront Park.

One route proposed was Niagara On The Lake to Bronte. The the commuters would transfer a shuttle to the Bronte GO Station for a trip into Toronto. The second service, was Bronte to Downtown Toronto (Terminal Warehouse).

Staff met on a number of occasions with the proponents and reported the results of the discussions to Council. There were two major problems with these proposals. First was the lack of parking in Bronte and the ability of the local road system to accommodate shuttle buses. The second was related to the service itself. There are examples of commuter boat services around the world. Three examples include those on the Thames in London, New York and Hong Kong. Both these locations are temperate climates.

For a commuter service to attract users, it must be reliable 365 days per year, regardless of weather. Lake Ontario can get severe storms. In addition, it is fresh water and in the winter there are freeze overs. Also, fresh water freezes at a higher temperature and the spray could build up on the hydrofoils (wind chill). There were also questions whether people would feel comfortable commuting on the lake in the dark of Winter. Lastly, would be the need to have a safety system, with back up craft, in the event one of the boats became disabled on the lake.

Surprisingly, after these discussions, the various proponents drifted away given the negative response to the proposals.

The Oakville Blue Jays, The Halton Argonauts and More?

By the 1980 Toronto had attracted a Major League Baseball team, the Blue Jays and there was periodic interest both NFL and NBA Teams.

CNE Stadium was a stop gap measure, not baseball or fan friendly. After attending a bone chilling, rain filled Grey Cup at Exhibition Stadium in 1982 Ontario's Premier, Bill Davis announced the creation of a Stadium Study Committee Chaired by former head of Ontario Hydro Hugh McCauley. The study group began its work in 1983 and sought design, stadium concepts and locational submissions from across the GTA.

Ontario's then Transportation Minister (Oakville MPP Jim Snow) convened a meeting with the Mayor's of Oakville, Milton, Halton Hills, Burlington and the Halton Regional Chair. The timing of the initiative to build a new stadium coincided with the studies underway to build the GO ALRT system (discussed above). One of the proposed high speed, electrified mono-rail lines ran parallel to the Oakville/Mississagua boundary before heading easterly to the Toronto International Airport.

The Minister had drawings prepared of a stadium location and design in the North-East Quadrant of when Hwy. 407 West and Hwy 403 intersect today. The design was very futuristic with images of the mono-rail trains passing directly through the stadium, similar to what you see at the Contempra Resort at Disney World and hotels on the Vegas Strip.

The concept and idea of Halton being the home of a new stadium was embraced by the Council of the day and a small staff team was created to prepare a submission to the Stadium Study Committee.

Not only was the concept bold, but the idea as to how such a stadium facility would function and be viable was radical to say the least. Partly out of unbridled youth and enthusiasm and part hubris an idea was hatched to bring all the key players together to build support for the Halton location. The concept developed that through scheduling all three of the major sports teams could call the stadium home. Geographically, it was at a central location to each teams market in the GTA and would would benefit from open land, and excellent transportation access with the GO ALRT project and then planned Highways 403, 410 and 407.

Invitations from the Halton Chair and Mayors were sent to then Mayor Hazel McCallion in Mississauga, Regional Chair Frank Bean, Blue Jays President Paul Beeston, TiCats President Ralph Sazio and Argo's President Joe Zuger for a breakfast meeting.

Surprisingly all the parties agreed to this summit meeting which was held one morning over breakfast at the Royal York. After a presentation, questions and discussion the Jay, Cats and Argos as would be expected were not committal. The most vocal was Mayor McCallion who made it very clear Mississauga had its own site and would go it alone.

The Halton submission was completed in a very short time and a delegation headed off to Queens Park for a meeting with Premier Davis and the Stadium Study Committee. Following the Halton presentation only one question was asked, by the Premier. Do you really believe we (Ontario) would build the stadium anywhere but downtown Toronto?

With that very pointed question the vision of what is now Roger's Centre being location in Oakville/Halton ended.

A Great Lakes Science Centre

Once the Halton Waterfront Plan had been firmed up, attention turned to the development of Master Plans for the three proposed Regional Waterfront Parks, Bronte, BurlOak and Spencer Smith/Beachway.

Spencer Smith/Beachway as a recreational area has existed since the early 1900s. This included the major anchor of the old Brant Inn, cottages along the beach, the canal, piers, a carnival and Van Wagoners Beach.

The question of a Master Plan for Spencer Smith/Beachway, because of its size and geography began to focus on anchors. This included the potential of a hotel at the foot of Brant Street, the removal of the old rail line spur down to Lakeshore, a re-creation of the Brant and destination attraction at the Canal.

When you travel down Burlington Beach and use the lift Bridge, you will see a very large concrete office building overlooking Hamilton Harbour. This building is home to the Canada Centre for Inland Waters (CCIW). It is one of the pre-eminent research institutes into fresh water lakes, rivers and streams.

Many of us have visited or taken our children to the Ontario Science Centre others have travelled to Sudbury to visit Science North.

Halton staff developed a bold concept of a "Great Lakes Science Centre". The idea was to create not just a tourist attraction, but an education centre that would put a public face on the important work being undertaken by the scientists and researchers at CCIW. The Great Lakes are incredibly important to the environment, commerce and are a fundamental foundation of the history and settlement of Canada and the Unified States. The idea of a "Science Centre" at the entrance to the canal and beside CCIW would also capitalize the massive tourism traffic between Canada and the United States via the QEW Corridor. This location was also within a one hour drive of over 4 million Canadians.

With the assistance of the Province of Ontario, Halton embarked on a feasibility study and retained world renowned architect Jack Diamond (Four Seasons Performing Arts Centre, Order of Canada). Early on a partnership was formed with the Canada Centre of Inland Waters to provide input into the role function and focus of the Centre.

The Study was completed following which both the Federal and Provincial Governments were engaged to discuss their funding for this centre as they had with the Ontario Science Centre and Science North.

Sadly the early 1980s saw a major recession combined with high rates of inflation. The economic climate was not favourable to this kind of investment. After nearly two years of meetings and discussions the project was abandoned. Somewhere in the archives of Halton Region are the architectural drawings of the proposed centre prepared by Jack Diamond. While not built in Halton, it did not mean the concept was not viable. As part of the revitalization of Cleveland Ohio, a Great Lakes Science Centre was built on the shores of Lake Erie and today is a thriving tourist attraction and educational centre.

After You Flush: What Happens?

Many of the excellent services we have in Oakville and Halton are partly or completely invisible. Yet, they are part of our daily lives...which we take for granted.

Halton has one of the best and most environmentally progressive and sound system for treating the sewage created daily by its nearly 700,000 residents.

After leaving your house, it travels via mains to state of the art treatment plants in each municipality. In the case of Oakville there are three. Mid Halton, on the QEW, Southwest, near Coronation Park and SE on the north side of Lakeshore near Winston Churchill Blvd.

After treatment the clean water is returned to the lake.

However, our problem of sewage management doesn't end there. As part of the treatment process a thick sludge is created and must been dealt with. Like, garbage, Oakville as do all the municipalities of Halton send there sewage sludge to "someone else's backyard"

The sewage sludge is dewatered and then trucked to farm fields within 150kms of Halton to be used as organic fertilizer. While the sludge is highly regulated by the Ministries of Agriculture and Environment, there is growing public concern and reluctance by farmers to use this organic waste. Another challenge is the cost of maintaining such a system.

I sometimes chuckle when I see and hear Oakville residents rage and protest about a proposal to use .003/percent of the Greenbelt (lands which abut or are surrounded by urban development for new housing). They talk about protecting green space while out of the other side of their mouth object to any attempt to intensify existing development to save green space. They talk about the sanctity of the Green Belt, but don't mind driving through it in their SUV by the 1000s creating hydrocarbons to get to their cottage.

And every day their sewage is spread on this precious land by the 100s of thousands of gallons.

Sewage sludge or bio-solids as it is called can only be spread/injected into the soil between May and November. In the other months the soil/ground is frozen and it can not be absorbed.

To deal with this problem, a storage facility exists in Milton (east side of Hwy 25, North of Burnhamthorpe Road. If you drive along Hwy 407 approaching Bronte Road, you will notice 6 shiny domes on the north side. This is where the bio-solids are stored during the winter months before they are shipped to farm fields.

In the 1990s a more environmentally sustainable solution became the focus of municipalities. In Toronto, they developed a peltization facility, that turned it into a solid for incineration or burying in the groups. The facility never worked well and caught fire. At one point in time Toronto also sought to store their bio-solids at the Halton facility in a series of outdoor ponds. Problems with smells and leakage resulted in years of lawsuits before the ponds where removed.

Hamilton to sought a solution. It developed a dewatering facility and a process where the bio-solids would be turned into a dry fertilizer to be sold in garden centres and by farms. Citizen opposition to the plant eventually shelved the concept.

Halton too looked at such a facility, modelled after one in operation in Chatham and another in Leamington. Studies where undertaken to determine whether these small facilities could be scaled up to serve a population of Halton's size.

Again controversy over location and cost, shelved the idea. To this day, Halton/Oakville send another one of their problems to someone else's backyard, where the bio-solids are sprayed on and injected into the sold as fertilizer.

Using the foresight of the Waste Management Facility, had the Energy from Waste Plant been build, there could have been a long term, sustainable solution to the bio-solids problem, that will continue to grow, not just in Halton but across Ontario.

Halton's Central Park

Many Halton and Oakville residents are regular users and visitors to Bronte Creek Provincial Park. In addition to hiking trails, farm buildings, toboggan hill there is a large swimming lake and at one time outdoor skating and tennis.

When originally proposed, the concept centred around an Urban Provincial Park serving the Greater Toronto Area, accessible within a one hour drive and by public transit. While successful it has always been a bit of an orphan in the Provincial Park System.

In the 1990s the Ontario and Canadian economies had been through a series of recessions, high, out of control interest rates combine with massive Provincial and Federal deficits and debits. At one point in time the International Monetary Fund issued severe cautions about the state of Canadas fiscal health.

As a result, governments at all levels began to reign in spending and capital investments. In the case of Ontario capital assets and land holdings considered surplus or non-performing were considered as means to free up cash and generate revenue.

During this time period, the Province floated the idea of transferring the ownership and operations of Bronte Creek Provincial Park to the Region of Halton/Conservation Halton.

Discussions and negotiations resulted from this proposal. While moving this park into Regional/Local ownership would add much needed open space to south Halton, it was also recognized there would be a need for significant capital investment and on going operating costs.

When considered within in the context of the long term growth of Halton and in particular Oakville and Burlington, this park could function similar to Central Park in New York City. Ideas floated at time time, included direct transit connections to the Oakville, Bronte, and Appleby GO Stations and local transit service. Having these lands in local ownership would open up opportunities to create connected walking and hiking trails through the Bronte Creek Valley to the Waterfront Trail system emerging in Oakville and Burlington.

The solution or key to a deal with the Province would be the transfer of the lands combined with a significant, upfront funding for both capital and operating costs.

The upfront costs necessary to transform Bronte Creek Provincial Park were in the millions of dollars as a result there were no cost savings available to the Province and negotiations ended.

Halton's Government Services Campus

There was a recent newspaper article on the Provincial Governments rejection of a proposal to build a much needed Courthouse in Halton. Since 1974, Halton's only Superior Court facility is housed in Milton in the former County of Halton Building on Steeles Avenue. That building is well over 60 years of age and is falling apart. When first turned into a court facility Halton's population was barely 150,000, today it is rapidly approaching 700,000 people.

In 2000, Halton recognized this problem. At the same time there was a need for a new central Police Services Facility. A planning exercise was initiated. Focusing on lands around the existing Regional Headquarters an innovative concept was developed.

At that time both Boards of Education were in old buildings, over crowded and in a bad state of repair. The concept was centred around the idea that various government agencies required support services and facilities. This included meeting rooms, print shops, computer systems and support, payroll and purchasing. Already, shared services were emerging including a purchasing co-operative between the lower tier municipalities and the Region to get better prices on things such as fuel, paper etc.

The concept was to build a shared services facility (rather than their duplication in each agency). The studies indicated there could be significant operational cost and capital savings. The construction of a new Police Headquarters would provide a unique opportunity to link it via, secure tunnel to the courthouse facility. The new Headquarters would include holding cells for people waiting for court cases to begin. Again it was expected this could reduce costs and speed up trials and other court processes.

After two years of study, analysis and lobbying of the Provincial Government the concept failed to gain any support both locally and with the Provincial Government.

While the new Police Headquarters was eventually built, Halton still does not have that much needed court house 20 years later.

Stopping Growth: Why You Are Here Today

Barely a week goes by where there isn't an article in the local papers or posts on social media about growth, opposition to some new development and complaints about how Oakville has changed.

In the mid 1970s, the same issues which appear today raged in Oakville, residents opposed to development and growth. In response the Council of the day commissioned a study, which became known as the Paterson Planning Report. This study looked out to year 2000 and argued the Town should restrict growth to only one area and limit the population to 141,000. At that time Oakville's population was around 76,000 people. Even under this growth forecast the Town's population would double in 25 years.

The Council of the day took further action passing resolutions that would effectively place a moratorium on development. It would take this action again in the mid 1980s, seeking a ban on new development.

The debate over growth and development continued to rage with builders and developers challenging the Town's decision before the Ontario Municipal Board.

A hearing was convened in January 1979 in the old Trafalgar Hall which was located in what was then the countryside and Trafalgar Road and Hwy. 5. For the next 6 months the Hall was set up like a court room. There were row after row of experts and lawyers. There were witnesses, binders filled with evidence, maps. There were cross examinations and legal arguments before two senior Hearing Officers appointed by the Provincial Government.

While at the core of the matters before the OMB was the level of growth to take place, also under contention was a question of 2 Regional Shopping Centres, the transportation systems and most importantly, the geography of that growth.

It was the Town's position, growth should be limited to a small area of what is now Glen Abbey (focused around Dorval Drive) supported with a new shopping area ( Dorval Crossing). Central to the Town's position was no development north of Upper Middle Road.

In opposition to the Town was a proposal for a new Regional Shopping Centre at Trafalgar Road and the QEW and proposals for 5 new major communities, Glen Abbey, West Oak Trails, River Oaks, Iroquois Ridge, Clearview and a new Town Centre on Trafalgar Road.

The Town's consultants, Planners and Engineers all appeared to present evidence in support of their positions and underwent gruelling cross examinations, sometimes lasting days. In turn experts on behalf of the landowners and developers faced similar examinations by the Town's legal Counsel and that of the Region of Halton.

These lengthy and costly hearings ended around June 1979 and later that year the Hearing Officers issues a lengthy decision of nearly 500 pages.

The decision concluded that Oakville's urban boundary should be extended to Hwy. 5, a new Regional Shopping Centre, be approved at Trafalgar Road and the QEW with a smaller complex at Dorval Drive and the QEW. Most importantly, that Oakville's population would grow to 200,000 by 2001, subject to market conditions.

Both the Town and Region of Halton sought to challenge the OMB decision and made an appeal directly to the Premier and Provincial Cabinet. Under Ontario Planning Law, Cabinet has the power to overturn an Ontario Municipal Board decision.

The Ontario Cabinet considered the appeal by the Municipalities and rejected their position. Further, it directed that the new Region of Halton Official Plan be changed to set the Urban Boundary at Hwy. 5, with a growth capacity of 200,000 people.

Following that decision, the issue of how to finance and service that development fell to the Region Halton that would have to provide the necessary servicing capacity and major road infrastructure.

If we fast forward today and ask the question what would Oakville look like if its alternative vision of growth occurred and its moratoriums on development and been permitted the answer could be interesting to consider.

First there would be no Oakville Place, or UpTown Core. Second, if you live in Glen Abbey, west of Third Line, West Oak Trails, River Oaks, Iroquois Ridge and even Clearview you would not live in Oakville, you would have had to find housing elsewhere. These decisions are now 40 years on. Therefore people who did move here in the 1980s and early 1990s in communities such as Glen Abbey, River Oaks, some of their children who grew up here, left and returned to buy homes, might not be here as well.

Most importantly, because of the much hated Ontario Municipal Board, well over 70,000 residents who now live in the areas under dispute in 1979, and have raised families and call Oakville their cherished home; benefited from those decisions and the planning that took place to design and build what are some of the most liveable communities in Canada.

In this regard, maybe for them, they are thankful for the FUTURE THAT NEVER WAS.

Post Script

Having the benefit of time and perspective, I find it sad, amusing and to some degree hypocritical that the debate over growth and development continues today.

That people oppose what they see as urban sprawl, while shouting opposition to intensification. At the same time, there is a call for growth to be stopped and it is destroying "their community". Now nearly a half a century later, people rage about the Ontario Municipal Board making decisions.

This can be best called the "Draw Bridge Mentality". I am in the castle, safe and I have mine.

Yet, their homes were built on farm land, trees and forests cut down. They have two or three cars in the driveway and complain about traffic.

We were all growth at one time or another. It is even more concerning they have not asked where their kids or grand children will live.

History can be an inconvenient truth.