Clarington Mayor Adrian Foster ranged during an interview with Durham Post from Courtice to Newcastle waterfront development, to Port Granby, Bowmanville Zoo and Camp 30 lands, to a proposed nuclear-centric park and then to the municipality’s strategic plan, tolls, tax windfall, hospital expansion and the train to Bowmanville.
Below are some excerpts from the interview.
Durham Post (DP): What is happening at the Courtice Waterfront Park?
Adrian Foster (AF): Right now, in South Courtice on the waterfront, we’re negotiating with a property owner. They’re looking for development rights. We are looking for a whole bunch of free land. It’s going to be tens of millions of dollars worth of land for free.
Clarington notionally agrees that development is appropriate down there. It is a special study area. Durham Region, as part of the Municipal Comprehensive Review (MCR), is looking at that. Durham Region staff are notionally in agreement that the appropriate development is going on there.
We had hoped if it had to be tied in with the region’s review, it would’ve been nice to at least have a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed with property owners.
But the discussions are going exceptionally well. The property owner is very community-oriented and understands how important that park is.
At this point we’re working out details.
This is immediate north of the lake, on the west side of Courtice Road, south of the 401.
We are planning for a significant waterfront park. We’re starting with a blank slate as opposed to existing development, existing infrastructure… so the potential to create something really big and special exists – and it’s not lost on the property owner.
We’re getting there. That’s exciting.
DP: Why is Newcastle Park going ahead despite $2.38m cost overrun while Bowmanville Boat Launch has been delayed two summers?
AF: Council made the decision to delay the boat launch. I didn’t agree with that. It was 6-1 vote, and I was on the wrong side.
The problem that we’re running into on the Newcastle Park is that the amount of money that we’re spending is far more. We are casualties like everybody else is, of inflation post-covid.
We’re not the first government to have to deal with inflation. We’ve lived in a low inflation era forever. The question is do we speculate on whether prices come down or do we need to pick and choose what we’re doing and what we’re moving forward with.
DP: Few details have been released of the new Clarington Strategic Plan. Can you elaborate?
AF: We have a report that we have accepted in principle. It is quite open and has a variety of options.
Clarington, very recently, while dealing with Board of Trade (BoT), recognized some challenges in business attraction. The municipality is taking on the business attraction role. We will continue to work closely with the BoT on their part of business expansion and retention.
Our Economic Development Office is brand new. You are not hearing a lot as it is still new.
We have started to identify strategic advantages that we have that you can’t replicate. These we need to capitalize on. A while back Toyota came to Clarington, same with other companies. A number of companies are coming to the municipality.
There is so much going on. There’s stuff happening in Orono, Bowmanville, Newcastle, Courtice, south Courtice…
Ontario Power Generation (OPG): We got OPG coming to town. That is the single largest employer [here]. More people work at OPG headquarters than at the nuclear power plant.
Even if you go with 2,000, that is the largest. And, then there are companies that want to be beside OPG headquarters – lawyers, accountants, PR guys, suppliers… I’ve no idea what that list looks like, but it’s a huge opportunity to bring those individuals in as well.
It will be prestige employment part of the Energy Park. That makes sense with the lands that are developable today. A significant chunk is privately held land in the Energy Park. I don’t know when those privately held lands will become available for development.
Nuclear Park: But there are other opportunities in Clarington, quite close. They don’t need to be right next door, but 10 minutes down the road.
Notionally there is a proposal for nuclear-centric park off the 401. We’re looking at that.
On the nuclear file, we got the small modular reactor (SMR). Canada, for a variety of reasons, is a global leader in licensing SMRs.
It’s a big, small reactor. They are already being marketed across Canada, with expressions of interest from around the world. That is a multibillion-dollar opportunity right here in our backyard. GE Hitachi [which supplied SMR technology] will be in Durham Region, and we are pushing for them to be right here in Clarington. It’s a massive opportunity for the supply-chain community, massive opportunity for us. It ties in with the university.
Second Urban Centre: Potential with the GO train coming is the possibility to create a second urban centre. Courtice can start with a clean slate.
A lot of money is going to be spent on the expansion of the hospital. We tend to ignore how important hospitals are as economic generators. They spend a lot of money. We need to understand the economic impact.
Then there’s Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. When I’m at the track, I am surrounded by Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Porsches and McLarens. The people that show up are highly successful business owners. The track is an economic generator.
Tourism Potential: On the tourism side, we tend to say we are the prettiest municipality. We got 34km of waterfront. We have the Courtice Waterfront, the former Bowmanville Zoo lands, there is a vision of a huge circle of green.
We have Port Granby with hundreds of acres coming back to public use with tying up of remediation work. Land that we will be able to picnic on.
We are bringing into public ownership significant tracts of land to be used by the public.
These are long term visions and plans. You have a long-term multi-year strategy as we don’t have the money to build all this at one go.
There’s a lot that we are still working on.
DP: Why was the 2021 tax rate reduced despite higher staff recommendation?
AF: Two things happened. One, we literally found a bunch of money between the staff recommendation and budget time, which allowed us to come in a bit lower.
But it is a challenge moving forward with inflation.
We need feedback from the public. We get very little on specifics. If we get a clear message from the public, we will, of course, listen.
What is difficult is when people just say don’t raise my taxes.
DP: What is the status of Bowmanville Hospital expansion?
AF: We need a date like in the case of train to Bowmanville. If we have a date in mind, and if there’s a really good reason it is delayed, people will understand.
The province early spring released enough money. They’re getting down to the details of size of rooms. But we want shovels in the ground at such and such a date.
The foundation will be gearing up, we need to do a lot of fundraising. Clarington put up $5 million. I believe the number for Durham Region was $37.5 million.
DP: Is Clarington happy with the removal of Highway 418 toll?
AF: On Highway 418 where there were very few cars, there are cars. It’s easier getting north and south. It’s a provincial highway and I don’t know why the residents of Durham Region were the only ones who had to pay.
A great concern with tolls was that people were going to use regional and municipal roads and it’s just more wear and tear. And as we spoke about the massive growth in the area, we should be getting people on the highway, particularly trucking, if we’re moving significant amounts of volumes.
DP: Storm Damage – any figures?
AF: We don’t. The province has asked us to get the numbers to them on damage to municipal infrastructure, which was not huge. A larger cost is probably us cleaning up the brush for the properties.
There is significant amount of misinformation [on financial assistance] – we did not declare an emergency because the emergency is, if it impacts municipal infrastructure, and health and safety. Us declaring an emergency or not does not impact residents’ ability to go to the province looking for a program [for help] that exists.
Unfortunately, misinformation out there is that we should have declared [emergency] – the reason we didn’t is there is no value in declaring it.
We will be asking the province if they will help us with the cost of cleaning up the brush, and if they will help with the cost of cleaning private property.
Initial reaction from staff was that we hadn’t suffered any significant cost to public infrastructure.
DP: Durham Region has paused plans for an Anaerobic Digester (AD) in Clarington. Any reaction?
AF: There is a huge amount of money at stake. Clarington Council’s position has always been that we have no problems with technology. We recognize that there are two things without AD taking roughly half of the garbage in the garbage bag. The Durham York Energy Centre (DYEC) is at capacity. They’ll have to expand. I’m not in favour of an expansion of the DYEC. They do a good job on emissions. Those numbers are reported regularly.
So, given the choice between something that is virtually emission-free and we get renewable natural gas, and digesting that can be used as fertilizer – it is a far, far better way of dealing with the waste.
We’ve got lots down there. We’ve DYEC, we got a water pollution control plant, and we’ve got the transfer station right there.
I do fully understand why it’s convenient for the region to put it there. There are advantages, I get it. But could another community step up?
And, of course, garbage is controversial.
DP: What is your take on the Regional Council’s controversial decision to urbanize 9,000 acres?
AF: That has very unfortunately been typified as politicians taking the BILD [developers lobby scenario]. What has been lost in that discussion is the planning staff in Pickering, in Whitby, in Oshawa, in Clarington – our independent local experts who understand the planning needs better than the region does – all agreed that there had to be an amended version 2.
Our staff were on to that, but Ajax was not, but then Ajax is largely built out. We don’t know what it’s going to look like, we don’t know what we locally will approve or not approve, but there are some reasonable rational environmentally responsible decisions that we can make around expansions.
DP: How is the online permit system coming along?
AF: We are working on a number of changes. We’ve got a new CAO (chief administrative officer). There has been, over the last four years, significant change if you look at our structure pre-pandemic. We launched a reorganization at exactly the same time the pandemic hit.
Despite that, our leadership team is all quite fresh and new. And as a lot of change happened over the last couple of years, our new CEO is instituting some significant change. She’s coming from Richmond Hill, a far larger municipality, with the vision of how do you deal with volume that we’ve never dealt with before?
She’s implementing some of the systems like online permits and how can technology be our friend.
Timing depends on the budgeting. We are right now actively reviewing what we’re doing in terms of planning and permit approval. You’re going to see some immediate changes. There have been some very recent significant changes, and that will continue.
DP: Is the GO train finally coming to Bowmanville?
AF: There have been tangible steps that Metrolinx has taken in terms of contract. There is work being done that isn’t as publicly visible as we would like. I say that because there is a huge degree of well-earned cynicism.
We still need a target date, so people know when to expect to step on the train at any of the four [new] stations on the GO train.
We are obviously hopeful that the budget will more clearly articulate the Bowmanville extension. We’re disappointed with the passing reference in the budget, but we’re delighted with the work they are doing and the tangible progress.
I don’t want to diminish what the province is doing, but without an understanding and accountability for when it is being delivered, it’s difficult for members of the public to understand the process. Even a note in the budget would’ve helped.
Shortly after I was first elected as a local councillor in 2003-2004, a fellow from Metrolinx did a presentation on Lakeshore East Expansion. It’s almost 20 years later. It is time.
DP: What is the status of project at Bowmanville Zoo lands?
AF: We’re doing a public consultation, including with Valleys 2000, which took the lead in creating Bowmanville Valley what it is today. If you went back a number of years, it was a disaster down there. Valleys 2000, along with our help and funding from other levels of government, turned that into a gem.
They asked to be involved with Bowmanville Zoo. We’re delighted to have their enthusiasm and expertise.
We got 34 acres. There will be some active recreation down there and lots of passive recreation.
It connects with Soper Creek to the south, Camp 30 lands to the north, so there’s a huge swath of greenbelt. If we fast forward a couple of decades, that’s going to be a significant piece of parkland.
It’s our version of Central Park that we’re planning now.
DP: Boat Launch – people are unhappy this summer’s gone and next year’s likely to go too. Why the delay?
AF: The boat launch was unfortunately delayed by council because we thought we would have an opportunity to build a better boat launch in a far better location. The current location is not optimal – when lake levels are low, it’s virtually impossible to launch. We’ve had several years where there were literally inches of water.
So, we opted not to spend the money when we thought we could build a new far better one. I won’t say where because the old one is still a possibility, and in part, it was a land purchase which is confidential. We thought we were moving forward, but the budget came in far higher.
We spend huge amounts of money – as we should – on hockey, soccer, the pools. And folks that are into recreational boating and anglers, tend to be an afterthought. We need to be fair with them as well. As much as it’s a lot of money, maintenance is not a big deal, and it’s not something that we do every year. I think if you looked at the cost amortized over, it is a worthwhile project.
The sad reality of any council is we need to pick priorities.
DP: How is Clarington tacking Affordable Housing issue?
AF: Affordable housing is a huge issue. I have two adult sons who are professionals. Both work incredibly hard. My son’s wife is part owner in a sports therapy clinic. They can’t afford to buy a house.
Monetary policy will only go so far. A condo is not the answer. High density is not the answer. There are people who need a front and a back yard.
We need to bring more product online if we’re going to solve this issue. It’s a fundamental right to have a place to live, and you can’t afford to buy, and you can’t afford to rent in one of the world’s wealthiest societies?
Our kids can’t afford to live in the province. It’s a huge province.
I would suggest that the negativity around the urban boundary expansion has been simplified. There are many decisions to be made. And we know that the appropriate decisions are going to be made.
$400 per unit fund: We had the Lt. Governor come to Clarington several years ago, before things went insane. But even then, we were looking at affordability – maybe accessibility is a better word. The discussion and dialogue were around that. We set up an Affordability Housing Task Force. We created a tool kit which was then leading edge in Durham Region.
More recently, for units that are being built in Clarington, there is $400 per unit which is going to an affordable housing fund. We don’t know how we’re going to use that. This is just starting.
We’ve supported the project on Bowmanville Avenue built a couple of years ago, and seniors housing in Newcastle. More recently we’ve had surplus property on Spry Avenue [in Bowmanville]. It’s a pending sale to a partnership between Durham Region Not for Profit Housing and Habitat for Humanity. We sold that below market for affordable housing.
We need to do some work yet on that. In Clarington we’re stepping up. My hope would be the money that we get from the sale of the property, we keep in that pot for affordable housing, and see how we can help we can replicate that model.
DP: What are the growth projections for Clarington?
AF: For Clarington growth projections we are looking at 2035. They are optimistic for roughly a 50 per cent increase in population, probably more than what we will actually see.
In regional planning, one has to overestimate the population because that comes into development charges. If we underestimate, we run the risk of underfunding.
Clarington has the room to grow.
With population come jobs. Density of population supports diversity. I would hope to see the densities in the existing centres, sort of what we’re planning now near transit, near schools.
Some of the urban boundary expansions will be more along the lines of the townhouses.
[Clarington had a population of 101,427 in the 2021 census by Statistics Canada.]
Can’t build half of a tower: In south Courtice, near the GO train station, if I can put significant density there where none exists, it reduces the need to put density elsewhere.
Proposed building on Highway2 and Green Road in BowmanvilleSome of the industry is suggesting that the market doesn’t exist for high rises in Clarington, and I’ve got other players saying it does. So again, I would look around the GO train station at a potential for a 24-storey building – and I’m just picking a number randomly obviously – but you got a view of Lake Ontario, a view of the Oak Ridges Moraine, you’ve got access to the 418, GO train, the 401 and a 20-minute walk to a waterfront park.
Right now, the max we have in our official plan is 12-storeys.
One developer who was desperate to build a three-form structure number of years back, came into my office a couple of years ago, desperate to go to 25 on the same property.
The market changed so very quickly. It is all market driven.
The other issue is, finances are difficult for building anything high rise.
You can build half of a subdivision, but you can’t build half of a tower.
DP: Why was there a 32% drop in residential permits?
AF: We don’t issue permits until the builder applies. One of the allegations – and I’m using that word on purpose – for limited housing supply, is that some developers are sitting on property where units have been approved but developers haven’t asked for the permits.
We do have a couple of larger projects here where things are ready to go and the developers have not come for permits.
These tend to be higher density high-rise, and financing high-density high-rise is difficult.
One of the issues is that Durham is one of the fastest growing regions since 2017, and Clarington has been the fastest growing municipality within Durham Region. We’ve got an incredible amount of growth, our staff are just swamped, and we can’t hire. We have posted positions and I have literally no applications. I understand there were 40 positions in Durham Region open for planners. In the private sector, you can make far more money than we can offer.
I can tell you that we are having challenges.