Skullduggery at the top

There was a crisis in a north-west neighbourhood a few weeks ago. I received a call from a resident to report taps were dry. My heart lurched. I thought - Panic Stations. Then my caller told me sprinklers in her neighbourhood had been on for hours and water was running down the street. I recognized that scenario.

When I was a very new resident of Aurora the water was stored in a tank above our heads . We drained it one night. Too many people had sprinklers running at the same time.

To refill the tank, water had to be pumped up faster than it could be allowed to come down. The works department was frantically touring the neighbourhood with a loud -speaker telling people to turn off sprinklers. If they didn't see it happening, they jumped out of the truck, ran up the driveway and turned it off themselves. It was a crisis.

New as we were, we had no idea of how the system worked. A significant number of us were refugees from war-torn Europe. The Suez Crisis had been one too many. We nevertheless knew who to blame . and It wasn't us. We had annual elections in those days. I ran for council that year. My issue was the town's incompetence at managing the water system.

The Region has been created since then. For the same purpose as when Metro Toronto was formed twenty-six years earlier. Immigration was encouraged by national policies. Population was exploding. It meant small communities around Toronto would be pressured for development. They didn't have the tools to handle it. Horror tales abounded of stuff going on between politicians and developers.

The Region of York was formed with similar responsibility for planning and providing hard services. The Province passed The Planning Act. Municipalities were required to create Official Plans.

Without going into detail, it has to be said, municipalities are governed completely by Provincial legislation. There are no ifs, ands, or buts. When an application for development is received , precise and detailed steps must be followed. In Aurora, no plan of subdivision ever receives approval without every 't' being crossed and 'i' dotted.

In the past forty-five years, Aurora's growth has been slow and methodical. Our reputation for meticulous attention to detail may have had some efffect. From a developer's perspective, it wouldn't make sense to go through a laborious process in Aurora, while other municipalities were anxious to welcome the population to support new commercial development which is the gravy in the assessment pot. We were intent on not making mistakes which could not be corrected and the community fully supported that principle.

We are currently at the stage of a finite supply of water and sewage units from the region. Applications which have been approved have service allocations. .There is no mechanism to turn the clock back.

Millions of private dollars have been spent to bring lands to development status. Millions of public dollars have been invested to provide the services to make it happen sensibly. Million dollar facilities and services have been financed in anticipation of revenues from development charges and to meet the needs in advance of the new population.The process has taken years on the part of landowners, municipalities and the Province.

There have always been voices decrying the loss of green fields around us. It is a sentiment we can all share. But we still have green fields around us, flood plains within the urban area and protection for the Oak Ridges Moraine, which we never had before. We have done all we were required to do and more. We have insisted on neighbourhoods that ensure a quality living environment for families who have and will come to live in our community.

Though I was hardly aware of the difference it would make to my life and my family when we made our home in Aurora, I will always be profoundly grateful we received the opportunity.

The crisis that occuirred that hot, dry summer evening has been seized upon as a reason to stop issuing building permits .. I can understand residents without familiarity with the planning process arriving at what seems to be a logical conclusion:..... there was no water in the taps one evening, therefore no further homes should be built.

What I cannot understand is why people who have been elected, are in a position to know better and are responsible for communicating accurate information to the public, appear to be intent on exploiting the situation to lead a crusade based on a false premise which will cause chaos and confusion, exorbitant legal costs for taxpayers and no good purpose served.

When we have public servants on the one hand offering factual information and on the other elected officials saying something they know is not true, is it any wonder there is a loss of public confidence in our institutions? Who are people supposed to believe? Should they have to make a choice? I think not.