County follows provincial call to defer growth plan in New Tecumseth
Posted June 23, 2025
Simcoe County expressed little choice but adhere to the provincial government's request New Tecumseth hold off approving a growth plan and official plan update pending further policy updates.
In a report to County councillors on the June 24 meeting agenda, what would have been approval by the upper tier, instead breaks down the process to date while questioning why any delays are necesary.
The gist of the plan was to facilitate growth to 2051 for a minimum population of 81,000 people and 31,000 jobs. As a result settlement area boundary expansion option consists of 457 net hectares coming from 921 gross hectares for community lands (residential, commercial, institutional).
Reference has been made to municipalities now being mandated to base population and employment forecasting on the Ministry of Finance (MOF) projections as outlined by the Provincial Planning Statement, 2024 (PPS), according to the County report.
"The Provincial letter advises that updated guidelines will assist in determining land required for anticipated growth, however a robust exercise was recently completed through the County MCR and Town GMS to accomplish this. County Planning staff appreciate that changing conditions can affect growth (e.g. immigration policy) and alter expectations and projections for population and employment.
Notwithstanding, it would be helpful to understand why the Province is choosing to halt all progress made to establish new growth lands in the Town, rather than consider approving this work and subsequently updating using newer provincial methodology guidelines when they become available.
the County has not been given that same direction, it is the assumption of Planning staff that this will also apply to COPA 9. There is concern that waiting for new population methodology guidelines from the Province in the coming months will result in a new growth management exercise occurring to replace the existing program which began with the MCR and has transitioned to the Town’s GMS. It remains challenging based on the information provided to date to understand how initiating a new population and employment allocation exercise with associated land needs assessment accomplishes the task of making available new growth lands to meet the future needs of the Town efficiently. If the Province wants further analysis completed using new guidelines, this work should supplement what has already been completed over the last few years rather than replace this work only to start over.
County Planning staff will continue to communicate with Town and Provincial staff to ensure the questions and issues raised through this recent correspondence from the Province are answered, and that the implications of this unexpected change in direction are fully understood.
As always, County Planning staff look forward to collaborating and working alongside Town and Ministry colleagues to ensure the best interests of the County and lower-tier municipal partners are fully considered in all future decisions that must be made regarding long-term growth."
